FINALLY I GET TO UPDATE THIS STORY :'DD I could cry. I appreciate the lovely reaction to the previous chapters, by the way. It was much more than I expected.
Disclaimer: Peter Pan and Alice and Wonderland are neither mine, and I make no money whatsoever from ANYTHING much less these fics (I need a job. -.-)
The crowing. The retched crowing. Peter crowed, the boys crowed, even the bloody girls had taken up their leaders ridiculous crowing. It gave Hook such a migraine.
"Cap'n, they're back?" Smee finally returned from his assisting Mother Bri, asking what was probably the most imbecilic question Hook had ever heard. What, did he think that crowing was birds?
"Arm the east deck, Smee. You know the drill by now."
"Aye, Cap'n," he hopped off as dutifully as ever. Sometimes Hook wondered why he'd made this baffoon his first mate.
"Tiger Lily," Peter and Wendy hovered on either side of the Indian princess, while the other boys got the battle going. "Do you think you could identify the lady you saw if you saw her again?" This spot near the under-edge of the ship was more of a home-base than a hiding spot, as they always came to this exact area for time-outs during a fight.
Tiger Lily nodded. "Very sure. On a ship with men like this, she sticks out like a sore thumb."
"Alright. Do you have any idea where they're keeping her?"
She frowned. "I… don't know, but it shouldn't be too hard to figure out."
Peter nodded, and said "Of course not…" then murmured, "if this were a little harder, it might actually be fun."
Wendy elbowed him roughly, and he shook his hair out of his face moodily, looking quite pointedly in the other direction from her. It was obvious he'd come to blame her for the break in his playtime.
"Wendy, you go with Tiger Lily to find the lady. I'll take care of Hook." He soared aboard ship, guarding the girls entrance momentarily before letting them take care of themselves (or in other words, be protected by whatever other boy happened to be in close proximity).
He frowned, letting his eyes scan the ship. Where was Hook hiding today?
It seemed the boys weren't having much trouble. A few pirates were actually distracted, calling over the side of the boat. From the look of the blood on the hard wood, Smee had had quite the accident. That mildly amused him- usually his brothers didn't have the courage or drive to truly wound anyone. He'd have to credit whoever did it later.
It had taken a mere few seconds from that thought, for him to find himself facedown on the ground, pain running from his neck down his back. Someone had kicked him- right above the shoulder blades. He groaned, rolling over, perhaps a bit more slowly than was smart.
"On guard," the voice was soft but held low, and certainly not Hook's aged rasp. Given a good look at the pirate before him, he found the man had golden blond hair, a sturdy looking hat, odd, uneven spectacles, and dusty trousers that looked like they lacked in use. He was slender, maybe a head shorter than what Peter believed to be his own height, and posed skillfully with a sword that could have quite easily already ended him.
Not on this ship, or any other, had he ever seen this pirate, and he took pride in the fact he knew the names, and weaknesses, of every pirate who had ever dared face him.
He took out his dagger and was on his feet in one motion, grinning, pain forgotten. Hell-o New Game.
"What is this lollygagging, man?" Hook growled, throwing around one of his men in anguish. The young pirate had been loitering, staring despairingly over the side of the boat during battle.
"Smee, Sir," the man gasped. Even at a closer view, the man was nameless to the Captain. "He's been- he's been taken down."
Hook gave the blood a disgusted look and looked over the side of the boat himself to find a much darker concentration of red spreading through the shallow water.
"If that was really Smee," growled the Captain. "He'll hop right back on board after the fight, just you wait. And if he's dead all power to him- wish following wouldn't include pain and defeat."
"But Sir, shouldn't we try to help him-?" his mouth opened one more time, then he stumbled to the floor, clutching where Hook had shot him.
"If I wanted to waste my life mourning people," he hissed. "I wouldn't have become a pirate."
"Wh-aoo!" the boy's hand slipped right off the platform he'd attempted to reach for landing, and as with every other time he'd made such a pathetic mistake, the Blonde Pirate twirled their sword and took a step back, as if they hadn't been about to swipe right where their sword would take off the teen's leg.
"Pan, is it?" the Pirate said lightly, clearing some room for thought as they analyzed their opponents foot patterns. It hadn't taken the captive long, upon choosing her random fake-out victim, to realize she'd happened upon the leader of the attacking force. He looked near seventeen, with shaggy hair and bright eyes. Though his fighting style was admittedly affective enough, his stance was more the stance of a child play-fighting in his bedroom than a warrior's, as was his hole-y technique. She could have ended this a long time ago, had her goal truly been to end it.
Her eyes darted back up, now judging the distance of the Captain from their fighting area yet again. The momentary distraction wasn't enough for Peter to get a hit in on her though- she dodged neatly and spun fast, playing up the theatrics of her moves more than usual as she had so much room, and as she was trying to pressure something specific.
"It is impolite to seek another's name, when you have yet to state your own," the boy said happily. Peter, not at all realizing how easy the Blonde pirate was going on him, thought he was holding his own quite well in this battle, and was just waiting for an opening.
She smirked. "Smart. But I already know your name by now, so I have to make no such exchange."
A few more rounds of what Peter found to be engaging and what she found to be casual fencing, and they were quite near to the Captain. The blonde checked their distance again feeling quite like she was manuevering herself laboriously over a chessboard. The difference being no matter how many times she hit this pawn, she couldn't let it die.
"I haven't seen one such as you on this ship before," the White Pawn pressed, oblivious to the Black King's ever-closing proximity.
"I'm new," the Pirate smiled widely, showing a perfectly innocent set of bright white teeth. The surprise at the pirate's attractive smile nearly made Peter slip up again.
"I shall never be old," Pan announced gallantly, "but I'm certainly not new."
"What are you a poet?" she sighed, exhausted with the formal speech. "I've never heard a guy your age talk all prim like that."
"I speak just fine, thank you very mu-u-ACH!" Pan was interrupted, as Hook took a handful of his hair and threw him out of range of the Blonde Pirates sword.
"At ease," Hook said darkly. "I'll take it from here."
Though her mind was speeding up a mile a minute, now that her real opponent had appeared, she relaxed her stance, so as not to alert the Captain.
Peter was on Hook in half a second- undeterred, if irritated, by being stopped in the middle of "defeating" his new opponent.
His hook and Pan's dagger collided multiple times. The girl was surprised. Pan looked much more dexterous compared to his older counterpart. She saw why he was feared- it all looked a lot more impressive than it was.
Hook finally got the upper hand, much to her disappointment, and Hook was nearly kneeing Pan to the side of the ship, right in the kidney. He held his hook to Pan's neck, vindictive pleasure evident on is face.
"And now Pan, you'll-" rather than wait for a cheesy ending note, the girl knocked the pirate out of the way, aiming a nice slice through his arm to slow him down. She held out a hand to Pan.
Seeming to find the whole, "common enemy" thing a very trustful way to say the circumstances had changed, Pan accepted, and let her help him get his footing.
"Thanks for the help, but…"
"You need to get out of the way, alright? This guy…"
"…Hook-"
"is mine." They blinked, then gave each other very hard, very exasperated looks.
"It doesn't matter in the least who I fight," the pirate huffed, getting to his feet and glaring murderously at the two. "But on guard. I'm not going to wait for you to make up your minds."
Okay. On the one hand I hope this doesn't suck- on the other hand, I've done nothing but write this since I got home from school, and I don't care. I certainly worked hard enough on it. Ah, well. Review please my lovelies! (I don't even know why I started putting rate in other chapters/other fanfics.) If you think I should change something, tell me. And if I got something grammatically or spellingly wrong, (which I'm sure I did) tell me, because I don't have time to proofread this right now.