Chapter 5: The Fall


Max, Alex, and Justin Russo crept quietly along the starboard walkway toward the front of the SS Tipton. Around the next corner, between the structure to their left and the first smoke stack, was another commons area with a pool. Beyond that, between the smoke stacks, was another pool area, this one geared more toward children, with water slides, a pizzeria, and an ice cream parlor. Some of the students of Seven Seas High had dubbed this 'the kiddie deck.' On the other side of the second smoke stack was their destination, the Sky Deck. This area of the ship was reserved mainly for adults, though it was also the preferred hang out of many of the students who didn't want to be seen on the 'kiddie deck.'

Justin, who was in the lead, reached the end of the walkway and peered around the corner. Like the area where Max had initially arrived at the back of the ship, there were five guards milling about around the pool, guarding elevators, stairwells, and hallway exits. One of the men appeared to be carrying a RPG launcher. The rest, various types of machine gun. "Okay, listen," Justin whispered to his siblings. "I'm going to take out the guy with the missile launcher. You two take the two guys closest to us. That should buy us enough time to hit the other guys on the far side. Got it?"

"Got it," Alex and Max said at the same time. The three of them slipped out around the corner and took up hiding behind some decorative plants.

"Remember, turn them into something harmless and, Max..."

"I know... don't step on them..." Max finished his brother's sentence.

"Right. Now... on the count of three," Justin said. They pulled out their wands. "One." The each concentrated on their assigned target. "Two." They decided what to turn the men into. "Three!" They popped out of cover and aimed their wands. Three of the five pirates disappeared into small puffs of smoke. Where the man with the RPG launcher had been standing near the center of the area, next to the edge of the pool was a black pygmy goat. Where Alex's man had been, near the snack bar, was a small white mouse. On the stool where Max's man had been standing was a small, brown cat. The cat spotted the mouse on the floor and pounced after it. The mouse fled with the cat hot on its tail and the two of them disappeared around the corner on the port side walkway. Alex and Justin gave Max an irritated look.

"What? How was I supposed to know she was thinking mouse?" the youngest of the siblings tried to defend himself. Before any of them could say anything else, the two remaining men spotted them and started yelling and walking toward them. "Look, I got this one," Max said.

"No, Max... wait..." Justin tried to stop his younger brother, but he was too late.

Max popped up from behind the bush causing the two men to stop in surprise. When the man on the left started yelling again, Max pointed his wand and turned the man into a unicorn. The man on the right, frightened by what he had just witnessed, started to scream and pointed his gun at Max. Before he could fire a single round, though, Max turned him into a Jack-elope. Max smiled at his handiwork as Justin and Alex came out from behind their cover. The look on Justin's face made Max stop smiling.

"Really, Max?" Justin said, trying to keep his voice down. "REALLY?"

"What?" Max asked.

"You really don't think people will notice that mythical creatures that don't exist have suddenly appeared on this ship?" Alex asked.

Justin waved his wand and the horns on the two creatures disappeared leaving a regular horse and a rabbit. "There... at least these animals are REAL."

"Jeez... I was just trying to have a little fun with it," Max said, disappointed.

"Max... look..." Justin started, realizing that now wasn't the time to argue with his little brother. "I'm sorry. We just have to be careful. You can have fun with these guys, but... just make sure that whatever you turn them into isn't going to expose the world to magic."

"Yeah... well... any more than horse and a rabbit finding their way onto the ship while it's in the middle of the ocean," Alex added.

On the Sky Deck, the three men who had been standing at the smoothie bar with the laptop were showing what they had found to the man Cody had decided was their leader. The four of them were discussing something and looking and pointing toward the area where Marcus, London, Woody, and Addison had been taken. Cody couldn't hear what they were saying, nor could he have understood if he had been able to, but he was sure that the men had identified one of his famous friends. After a few minutes of discussion, the three soldiers approached Cody's friends. One of them knelt down in front of London with the laptop and held the image that was on screen up next to her face. London had tears in her eyes and a look of fear. Woody and Marcus on opposite sides of her couldn't bare to watch and both stared down at the floor. The man with the laptop looked up at his partners and shook his head, confirming that the image on screen and the woman sitting in front of him were the same person.

On the top deck above, the Russo siblings had made it through the 'kiddie deck' easily and had taken position above the Sky Deck to get a better view of what was going on. There more pirates here than they had encountered in any one place on the rest of the ship and Justin was trying to devise a plan. While his older brother strategized, Max was watching the events unfold right below them. He didn't like what he was seeing. He had spotted his friend Zack, along with Cody and Bailey, sitting against the rail on the far right side of the Sky Deck. Just below him, in front of the hot tub, two men were holding London Tipton while another stood in front of her yelling in a language Max didn't recognize. London was crying.

The two men started to take London away. She started to struggle with them and they got more aggressive until they were practically dragging her. She started screaming and kicking, trying to get away. From across the Sky Deck, Cody yelled to her, "London! Don't! Don't fight them!" One of the guards ran over and threatened Cody, but as he watched London's struggle, he couldn't help but to call out to his friend. "London, stop! You'll make it..." Cody was cut off mid-sentence by the butt of a rifle to the face. Bailey screamed and Zack watched in horror as his brother slumped over onto him, blood running from his nose. Zack started to try to get up to confront the man, but was met with the barrel of the same gun that had knocked out his brother and thought better of it. He settled back down and comforted his unconscious brother as best he could while tied up. Bailey was now crying uncontrollably.

At the same time Cody was being knocked out, Max saw the two men dragging London stop in front of the third man who had been yelling at her moments before. He started yelling at her again and London started fighting harded than ever to get free. The two men held their firm grip on her arms so she could get free. Then, Max saw something he couldn't bare to watch.

Seeing Cody get knocked out was bad enough, but Max knew he had to stay behind cover until his siblings were ready. But when the man below him punched London Tipton in the stomach and slapped her hard across the face, Max lost control. Before Alex and Justin had time to realize what was happening, Max sprang up and leaped over the rail, down onto the Sky Deck, landing in the hot tub below. Before any of the pirates could react, he popped up out of the water with a yell and a rage in his eyes and aimed his wand at the man who had punched London. The man exploded like a sausage that had been left in the microwave too long, painting everything and everyone within ten feet of where he had been standing in red. Alex and Justin took off, heading down the stairs to try and help their brother. Max took aim at one of the other men, but wasn't fast enough. The other nine guards had now had time to process things and were aware of his presence. The leader of the group yelled in his foreign language and opened fire in Max's direction. Four of the others followed his example and also started shooting.

Alex and Justin both screamed "NO!" as they reached the bottom of the stairs, watching the hail of bullets schredding the hot tub and the wall behind it. They grabbed their wands and started to try to use them, but in their panic, failed to notice the two guards they ran past at the bottom of the stairs. The two men grabbed Alex and Justin from behind. The siblings tried to fight back, but in the struggle, both of them had their wands knocked out of their hands. One of the men grabbed Alex and when Justin tried to pull her away, the other man pointed his gun in Justin's face. Powerless without their wands and staring down the barrel of a machine gun, Alex and Justin reluctantly gave up. Two more men came over to help their comrades tie up the siblings and dragged them off to sit them with the other hostages.

Alex and Justin both hoped that Max had been able to take cover and sneak away. As they were seated in front of the towel boy's station, they watched as London Tipton was taken away in shock by two men who, like her, were covered in blood and what could only be described as a pirate smoothie. The leader of the terror group and two of his guards approached the hot tub carefully, with guns drawn.

The next thing he saw caused Justin's heart to break. Alex blurted out, "OH MY GOD! NO!" as she burst into tears and buried her face in her older brother's shoulder. Justin watched in stunned silence as the three men lifted Max's bloody, lifeless body out of the hot tub.

(Author's Note: Surprise #2! Thanks again to everyone for continuing to make this story a success. And welcome to the new readers who may have just joined us since I've moved the story from the Suite Life section to the Wizards section. I hope you all have enjoyed it up to this point and appreciate any reviews. :) There are still more surprised to come. Stay tuned!)