Eheh... I know I said in my replacement of chapter 2 (WITH scene breakers, this time) that I'd put the new chapter up on Friday- but I got impatient, so here it is on Thursday! Ummm- couple o' things... one, I welcome constructive criticism in my reviews- I really wanna learn how to write better. ::pauses:: And the irony in that last sentence is so thick it's threatening to smother me. Two, notes to reviewers and introductions to my muses will be at the bottom of the chapter. Three, I have another story up, which you can get to from my bio page. If you like this one, try the other one (it's called Pilot 06 Mirage- and it is NOT about Zechs). I'd LOVE reviews and comments about it.

Well, that is all. ::waves an arrogant dismissal to the paupers::

Last Chapter:

With twin thumps, they hit the ground running. Realizing they wouldn't catch the pair, the riffle men stopped at the dock end and began merely trying to shoot them. All they managed to do, however, was chip the rather picturesque stone bridge their targets were running over before they made it out of range.

Norington was not going to let this pass. "Gillette," he snapped. "Misters Sparrow and Maxwell have a dawn appointment with the gallows- I would hate for them to miss it." The young Lieutenant nodded and ran off to start the search.

Chapter End

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The soldiers ranged all over town, looking for the two escapees. They were both encouraged and feared by the towns folk- no one wanted pirates on the loose, after all, but equally, most of them had something that they didn't want the soldiers to know. So everyone got out of the way as the red coats marched up and down various streets and rushed into various buildings.

Heero snorted when he saw this, as he and Will entered the outer edges of the town. How did the amateurs expect find someone when they were hopping around, plain as day, with more care to what they looked like then what they were looking for? Idiots.

This idiocy was lucky for the two fugitives, however; nobody paid close attention to just what might be behind statues in dark corners, and nobody noticed a blacksmith's statue with an extra sword. The pirates took the opportunity presented by a lull between patrols to quietly slip into the shop by the statue. They needed to get the chains off before they did anything else.

Once in the shop, they took a wary look around. There didn't seem to be anything unusual... a furnace with metal hooks and poles heating in it, a bellows to pump the furnace, an anvil, hammers, a roller ramp, and a donkey-pulled series of wheels and gears to bring various hammers into use. And no one home. Perfect. Jack hung his hat on a handy hook, then grabbed a hammer to try and break the cuffs chains. Duo swung up into the rafters and began rooting in his hair for his picks. It was true that his could pick the locks on both their cuffs, but he and Jack had a running joke about that. Jack owed Duo a free drink for every lock that he had Duo pick. As the drink tally was already running up in the hundreds, Jack felt that he didn't need to deepen his debt, especially with all the equipment for breaking his chains so delightfully handy!

The man in the corner was only noticed when the bottle of rum he was holding slipped out of his limp hand and thudded to the straw-covered floor. Both intruders tensed, until they saw what made the noise. Even then, they knew they couldn't afford to let him wake up. Duo held a hammer, ready to knock the rather filthy man back into oblivion should he react, while Jack tested his state of consciousness. When the man failed to response to pokes, pinches, and yells, they judged it safe enough and continued with the business of ridding themselves of their irons. Duo was out of his inside of a minute, but Jack had little more trouble.

Trying to get enough leverage to hit something on your wrist, especially when your wrists are chained together, is frustrating, to say the very least. Jack couldn't hit the same spot twice in a row, and was within a hair of throwing a screaming hissy-fit at the chains, hammer, anvil, and life in general. Duo was within a hair of losing his perch, due to hilarity.

Jack glared at the chains. By this point, he was reduced to yanking hem like a child in a temper tantrum. He was not going to let pieces of freaking iron get the best of him, damnit! Looking for anything that might help, his gaze wandered over the shop. It fell on the heavy-duty gears that were pulled by the donkey. Now that would work! But how to move the donkey?....

One red-hot poker on the tail later, the donkey was careening around its area and turning the gears. Jack quickly looped the chain tying his wrists over one of the gear teeth, then hung on as it approached the spot where the teeth meshed with another gear. The links, weakened by the hammer blows, broke under the pressure, and Jack was free.

Unfortunately, Will and Heero chose that moment to return.

As the latch on the door lifted, Jack dove for cover behind a handy partition, and Duo froze up in the rafters. Hmmm.... two on two. Even odds.

(x)(x)(x)(x)(x)

The two young men were startled that the donkey was moving, but didn't notice anything immediately wrong. Will leapt down to calm the little beast, and Heero went over to check on the so-called 'Master Smith.' No changes there.

"Right where we left him," chuckled Will. That was when he noticed something odd. The hammer that he had left next to the anvil was now lying across it. He motioned Heero over, muttering, "Not where I left you." Now fully alert and wary, the two started to look around the shop. As one, they spotted Jack's hat, which had been left on the hook.

Realizing that they couldn't hide anymore, Jack and Duo came out with style. Jack had his sword out and pointed at Will before either of the others could react, and Duo hung from a rafter and caught Heero's throat in his discarded chains, the same way Jack had caught Dorothy.

Heero's reaction was far more pronounced then Will's. Will started to back up, slowly, while Heero grabbed the chains and gave a vicious tug. He, after all, was not a 'helpless lady' who had just been rescued from drowning, nor was he shocked by the move- he had been expecting something like it. Duo was pulled out of the rafters, but with a cat's instincts he flipped over to his feet. The two teenagers instantly started to grapple, aiming blows, kicks, and jabs at each other. They battled all around the shop, leaving only Jack and Will's area alone. The two older men paused and watched the action.

Heero might've had more technical ability, but Duo was far faster, and used everything around him to help. He threw tongs at Heero to get him to duck, hay into his face to blind him, at one point, donkey droppings as a distraction. The blows he landed using these techniques were nothing to dismiss lightly, either. After one such exchange, when he had used a rope as a very effective combat weapon, Duo made equally inventive use of the ramp: a vault to the top of the gears. This loosened the braces on the ramp a bit, but as the donkey had stopped moving, the gears themselves were perfectly stable. Duo apparently felt that he was safe.

This, however, was Heero. He had taken every one of Duo's blows, hung on through every trick, and given as good as he got. There was no way he was going to let his opponent jump out of the fight. He was not going to let one pirate, no older then he was, escape him! Especially not when he was using such underhanded tactics!

Following Duo's route (which loosened the supports on the ramp even more, but nobody noticed something as trivial as that), he followed to the top of the gears.

Big mistake.

Duo had not only anticipated this move, he had a way to trap Heero with it. The chains that had been around Duo's wrists had been tossed up here at one point during the fighting, and Duo had grabbed them upon landing. When Heero hit the gears, Duo was ready. As Heero came down, and was regaining his balance, the iron shackles were snapped onto his wrists. While he reflexively jerked at this, Duo knotted the rope through the chain and around one of the axles. Heero was stuck. "Down for the count!" whooped Duo. "Shinigami strikes again!"

Heero made an unintelligible growl and yanked on the chains. Thanks to the smith work and general hauling that he did, Heero was far stronger then his appearance suggested. At that tug, the chains gave a little. No one else noticed; the two on the floor were apparently engaged in a staring match, and the braided cheater of a pirate in front of him was still dancing around idiotically. Hn. Just because you'd captured your enemy didn't mean you'd won the fight... Heero hid a small smirk as the chains gave a little more under another yank.

Meanwhile, the other halves of the respective pairs had begun their round. Will started it off. "You're the ones they're searching for," he stated. "The pirates."

"Really?" said Duo in a shocked voice. "We had no idea, honestly." Everybody ignored him, even his partner. Jack was staring at Will with a rather puzzled look on his face.

"You seem somewhat familiar. Have I threatened you before?" he asked.

Heero gave another yank to his chains. This was ignored, too.

"I make a point of avoiding pirates," Will replied, disdain clear in his voice and face.

"Ah," Jack sighed. "Well, it'd be a shame to put a black mark on your record. So if you'll excuse us..." He motioned to Duo and started toward the back door of the shop. Before Duo could move to jump down, however, Will had grabbed a sword of his own and pointed it at Jack. Having no blades besides his knifes, Duo made a prudent decision to remain above the level of the fighting. Though his perch was growing less safe by the moment as Heero continued to weaken the links of the chain.

Jack, meanwhile, had turned back to Will with a provocative smirk on his face. "Do you think this wise, boy?" he drawled. "Crossing blades with a pirate?"

Will merely glared. "You threatened Miss Swan," he said simply. If Heero hadn't been so busy with his chains, he would have rolled his eyes at idiotic infatuation.

Luckily, Jack was there to do it for him. The pirate ran his blade up and down Will's, faking him out. Then the fight started. Jack and Will slashed and parried, with the sharp ring of steel on steel echoing around the shop. Will's style was noticeably more formal then Jack's, but neither of them had a clear advantage.

Above, Duo and Heero watched the battle. "Hey, he's pretty good," Duo murmured. "His only problem is he's under the impression that a fight actually has any rules beyond 'win.'" The young pirate paused to grin at Heero. "Actually, that was your only problem, too. With a bit of training, you two might be pretty good!"

"Hn." Heero didn't know what was more appalling: the fact that a pirate thought he and Will needed 'training,' or the fact that he felt said pirate might have a point. Deciding to leave the issue alone, he settled for more yanking on the chains. They were getting ready to break...

Meanwhile, Jack and Will had paused in their attacks on each other. Or, more accurately, Jack had backed off and was looking vaguely impressed. "You know what you're doing, I'll give you that," he chuckled. "Excellent form. But how's your foot work? If I step here..." He began to step and circle, as if this was a formal fencing match. And, of course, Will followed. "Very good," Jack praised. "And now I step again." More of the circling followed.

Heero began to mentally praise Will's form, but Duo's barely stifled snickers told him to look again. He looked over the two fighters again, searching for what he had missed. Of course! The pirate's goal wasn't to defeat Will, or to win the sword match; it was to get to the door that Will was blocking and escape. And the circling was pretty much giving that goal to him on a silver platter. Stupid, stupid Will!

The blades below were flashing again, and the outcome was pretty much as everyone but Will had expected. Jack wound up next to the door, with a free shot out of it. "Ta-ta," he said pleasantly, turning to go. For the second time, he motioned to Duo, signaling their exit.

This time, however, it was Heero's smugness that alerted Duo that something was more then it appeared. He hesitated, not wanting to get caught in the middle of the two below him. This was a wise move. Just as Jack reached the door, Will drew back his arm and flung the sword. It didn't hit Jack, has Duo feared it would in the panicked seconds of its flight, but embedded itself deeply in the latch, effectively locking the door shut. Jack turned in shock at the sound of something striking the wood next to him, and went cross-eyed as he focused on the quivering sword that was level with his head. Duo went into a fit of hilarity at the look on Jack's face.

Jack himself, however, was somewhat less then amused. He grabbed the sword's hilt and tugged. No effect. No more effect was gained from yanking, either at the sword or the door itself. Will's toss had been too hard- the sword was stuck. Jack lost his patience before the sword lost its grip on the door.

"That is a wonderful trick," he drawled, striding down the cart/ramp (its supports, already weakened, gave very ominous creaking noises. No one bothered to note this, however). "Except," Jack continued, "once again, you are between us and our way out. And now, you have no weapon." Jack emphasized this last point by drawing his own sword, which he had sheathed upon going to the door.

Will's gaze flickered franticly over his surroundings, looking for something, anything to help defend himself... and he found it. With a quick twist and lunge, he was holding a glowing poker that had been resting in the fire.

Duo would have had another laughing fit about the way Jack face-vaulted at this move, except that he was rather busy with his own troubles. When the donkey had seen the heated metal, it had remembered exactly what Jack had done to goad it. Being a smart enough beast to learn from experience, it had then instantly begun to pull at the gears. This caused a very real danger for Duo, of falling and being caught in the gear's unforgiving teeth, but it caused a much more immediate danger for Heero.

Heero was tied to one of the axles, and that rope was being wound up onto the axle as the donkey continued its frantic work. When the rope ran out of slack, it would drag Heero up into the gears after it. Heero pulled on the chain as hard as he could, but it wasn't quite ready to break yet... Fuck! In a few seconds, he'd be dragged in!

Then Duo was there. He had recognized the danger to the both of them the instant the donkey had started to move- in fact, he'd been aware of the various dangers on the gears when he'd leapt up there and caught Heero in the chains. But the donkey hadn't been moving at that point, so it hadn't mattered. When the motion had started, he'd leapt over to a rafter for a stable footing, then snatched one of his daggers from its hiding place. A split second later, he was darting back onto the gears and toward Heero. With a quick leap and slash, he cut the rope and pulled his opponent away from the dangerously whirling beams. This, however, still left them with the problem of balancing and getting down from there without hitting the gears.

Heero was startled, to say the very least. An enemy, someone who was supposed to be ruthless and merciless, had risked a very great deal to save him. Why? Heero decided to leave this issue for a while as well, and focus on keeping his balance.

Duo didn't exactly help him shove the issue aside, however- he grabbed Heero's elbow and dragged him to the more stable area of the beams. Both of them ignored the noise and sparks that were coming from below, knowing that they only meant their respective partners were still fighting. They regained both their balance and focus in time to see Jack whip one of the chains still attached to his wrist around the poker, and use the snare grip to throw it from Will's grasp. Jumping over to a neighboring beam, Duo watched as Will leapt for one of a rack of swords that were under the gears. "Who makes all those?" he demanded as Jack and Will started to trade blows around a pillar.

"I do!" laughed Will. "And I practice with them," he added as he dodged a thrown sword from Jack, "three hours a day!" He then quickly leapt back as a hammer was flung at him.

"You need to find yourself a girl, mate!" was Jack's return comment. The two danced away from the pillar, Jack grabbing a hand ax off a hanger, and Will picking up a discarded sword from the floor. A few seconds later, all four blades were locked against each other. "Or," Jack murmured, continuing his commentary, "perhaps the reason you practice three hours a day is that you've already found one- and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet." This remark came too close to the truth, and coupled with Jack's calculated-to-annoy grin(1), it sparked Will's temper yet again.

"I practice three hours a day so that when I meet a pirate," he snarled, "I can kill it!" With that, he shoved hard on his blades, ending the stalemate. Jack stepped back- onto the single axled cart that was braced on a stone ledge and a bench. Will followed right after him.

Now, this ramp was braced to hold large, slow moving loads. But within the last ten minutes, it had twice been used as a vault for two small, fast moving bodies, and then stomped down heavily by a slightly larger and slower but still fast moving body. Now, it was being danced up and down by two weights in different places! Enough was enough. With an agonized groan and an ominous grating, the braces gave way.

Jack and Will both staggered under the sudden weight shift, but kept whacking at each other. Neither was willing to create an opening by turning to jump off. After a bout that was as much a balancing act and dodge-fest as it was a sword fight (Duo was near the point of collapsing from hilarity again), Jack tried a repeat of the 'whip the chain around the sword' trick. But this time, Will was ready for him. The instant the chain was secure on one of his swords, Will reached up and drove it into the underside of one of the rafters the two above were resting on, pining one of Jack's hands above his head and causing him to drop the ax.

Recognizing his disadvantage, Jack took a few wild swings with his sword, but Will was too far away to be hit. Jack compromised by stomping on a loose board under his feet, sending the opposite end up to catch Will under the chin and knock him senseless. Will fell backward in a daze, and Jack took the opportunity to try and free his hand.

In the lull, Duo started talking to Heero again. "Not, bad, not bad at all. Your friend learns fast- he turned one of Jack's tricks against him, and after only one look at it, too! And he showed a very nice bit of imagination with that poker. He'd make a good pirate."

Heero was actually rather surprised and pleased at the flattery of his foster brother- at least until the last remark. He opened his mouth to say something along the lines of 'Shut the fuck up,' but Duo continued on over any remark Heero might have made.

"Judging from the way Jack is now bracing his feet on the rafters to free his hand, I'd say he's completely forgotten about the Law of Gravity. And judging from the way your buddy is standing on the other end of cart looking smug, he's congratulating himself instead of trying to remember what happens when a heavy weight hits the end of a lever. What say we get down before these two forgotten facts collide?" Without waiting for a response, he grabbed the chain that he had fastened around his opponent's wrists and jumped down. Heero, of course, was pulled down after. Scratch any good thoughts he had ever had about the braided idiot.

Though said idiot quite cheerfully braced him when they landed... and looked to be right on the mark about what was going to happen between Jack and Will... and wasn't as filthy and ugly as all the other pirates he had seen... Heero caught that line of thought before it could get too far, tied it up, hacked it into little pieces using various blunt instruments, burned the pieces, and scattered the ashes across a metaphorical waste land.

While this mental effort was going on, what Duo predicted came to pass. The sword holding Jack's hand loosened, dumping the pirate onto the raised end of the cart. Will, who was standing on the other end, was launched into the rafters that the younger pair had just vacated, and it was Jack's turn to roll dazed off the cart.

Duo, by this time, was nearly having hysterics.

Jack pulled himself together, and hopped back onto his end of the cart. Will was nowhere to be seen... but before Jack could feel more then a hint of smugness, there was a twang from above, signaling that the rope holding up some heavy barrels had been cut- dropping them onto the side of the cart that Will had so recently been launched off of. It was Jack's turn to be sent flying.

By now, even Heero was showing small signs of humor.

Jack grabbed a rafter and swung himself up to stand on it. He and Will engaged a rather high-stakes and high altitude game of 'If you step to the left, I step to the right, can't catch me, nyah!' until they wound up on a single rafter. More acrobatic sword exchanges occurred. It was rather like whacking at another person while you're both trying to stay on the same balance beam. Now the formal quality of Will's style was an advantage- he found it easier keep a posture while fighting, and managed to knock Jack's sword from his hand. Realizing that he was at a disadvantage while in the rafters, Jack swung down, trying to get to his sword. But Will beat him down. Quickly trying to gain any advantage, Jack grabbed the bellow's chute, blinding Will with a spray of dust and dirt.

As Will staggered back from this, Jack lashed out with a kick, sending Will's sword flying out of his hand. The entire mess resolved itself with Jack holding his pistol on Will, and Will standing between him and the door with a pair of tongs in his hands like a club. Duo had moved to Jack's side, because he had heard soldiers outside. Their only way out, now, was the door that was on the other side of Will, and they had to get to it fast. Heero's chains were closer then ever to breaking, but he was now fighting an additional obstacle- Duo had grabbed one of the knifes on a nearby rack and used them to pin those chains to a handy pillar.

Will was glaring at the pistol in Jack's hand. "You cheated," he muttered.

Duo and Jack looked at him like he was a half-wit. "Pirates," Jack reminded him dryly, pointing to himself and his braided partner.

In this pause, the rattle of the door latch and the shout of the

guards were heard clearly. The two fugitives needed to get gone, now.

"Move away!" Jack ordered Will.

"No," Will hissed, glancing at the door the guards were now trying to break down.

"Please move?" Jack gasped. Heero began to franticly yank at the chains and the knife, knowing he had to do something...

"No!" Will cried. "I cannot just step aside and let you escape!" Heero nearly cursed aloud. The bloody idiot... knowing when to surrender was as necessary as knowing how to fight in the first place!

All traces of amusement had left Jack's face, and Duo was glancing worriedly between the pistol in Jack's hands and the door. "This shot is not meant for you," Jack said lowly, cocking the hammer.

Will glared, fully prepared to take the bullet- but it wasn't a shot that sounded through the dusty shop. What was heard was the tinkle of breaking glass, along with a dull thud. Jack collapsed, with Duo following him to the floor, and behind them was revealed one 'Master Smith' Brown, who had been long forgotten in the fights. He had apparently woken up, and upon seeing the pirates had broken beer bottle over Jack's head, and swung a hammer at Duo's. Both were now unconscious on the floor. Heero hesitated for half a moment as the look of startled pain in the eyes of the braided idiot flashed through his head... but shoved it out of his mind and went back to work on the dagger that was pinning him.

A split second later, Heero broke free of the knife holding his chains to the wall, and Norington and his men broke through the door to the smith shop. "There they are!" yelled one of the men, and instantly the redcoats spread out, each taking aim at the fallen bodies. Norington walked over to them.

"Excellent work, Mr. Brown," he said. "You've assisted in the capture of two dangerous fugitives."

"Just doing my civic duty, sir," the newly awoken drunk slurred. At this exchange, Will looked rather resigned. The smith was taking credit for something he and Heero had done- like usual. Heero, on the other hand, had apparently not noticed the statements at all. He was looking at the braided pirate sprawled on the floor with an almost regretful look on his face- or at least, his face was far more stony then usual.

Norington ignored both of them. He looked at the two pirates down on the floor with a victorious gleam in his eyes. "Well, I trust you will remember this as the day Duo Maxwell and Captain Jack Sparrow almost escaped," he said, returning the line coolly. "Take them away," he instructed his men. Heero watched them haul the pirates up, his eyes still fixed on Duo.

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(1) Now is Jack taking lessons in this from Duo, or vis-versa...?

Well, so much for this chapter! I hope you liked it. Now, for the muse brigade!

First, Catclaws! Besides being my evil alter ego, she also functions as my chief muse and muse of violence. Anytime someone gets their ass kicked, you can thank her. Here's a comment from her: Snarrl... you WILL review, RIGHT...? 'Cause if you don't, we have ways to track you down...

Next up, Catslaugh. She is not only my muse of humor, but also of all things sadistic. When ever something so evil it's hysterical happens, this girl's behind it. Aww... you'll make me blush... ::snicker::

Last of my major muses, there's Catspurr- muse of sap, sweetness, snuggles, and sex. All cuteness, gooeyness, and hotness are from her. Nice to meet ya, sweeties!

That's the lot. Of course, they all have little minions that they boss around, but they're only minor demons. These girls are the major players. Now on to the Thank Yous!

Kiora Maxwell: Thank you for your supportive reviews! How did ya like the Duo/Heero meeting? I thought it was really cute, personally, but I am reeeealy biased.

M-python-girl: Chocolate is what distracts Catspurr and myself, and holy water just gets the whole lot of us mad. (We kitties hate water of any kind, after all) And I agree with you about the whole fanatic thing. Sheesh... is it impossible for people to think every once in a while...? (All the muses: Yes) Okay, I deserved that. And I've managed to steal the holy grenade, so the killer bunny is toast. And I KNOW I heard the secret word that the knights of nee are weak too... now if only I can remember what it is... (Catslaugh: ... ::snicker::)

Bye bye till next time, folks! REVIEWS, PLEASE!!!!!!