I hope no one finds out. I'll be in a boatload of crap if anyone knows I've been pawning illegal jewels with Pan.

-Flynn

"You want to sell the jewel that belonged to the princess?" Flynn demanded incredulously to the smaller boy with a messy mane of red hair.

Peter nodded.

Flynn shrugged. "I don't know, Pan. It seems kind of dangerous to me."
Peter shook his head. "Naw, man. It's gonna be fine. You said you know that guy that pawns. We just need to play hooky from school tomorrow before the Triton girls' party, and then get a price on the crystal. I'll give you ten percent of the profit."
Flynn scratched his chin. "Twenty percent."
Peter gritted his teeth. "Fifteen—or the deal's off. I'll find some other delinquent to help me."
Flynn Rider glared. "Deal, Pan."

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

"This is it?" Peter asked, looking up at the NYC bar. The Snuggly Duckling. "Looks like a ripoff to me?"
"Watch it," Flynn warned. "The biggest cussmouths and criminals come to drink here. You better be respectful of them and this joint. It's a good place."
"Cussmouths and criminals?"
Flynn chuckled. "My kind of crowd."
Peter jutted his chin at the entrance. "How am I gonna get in? I'm a sophomore, remember?"
Flynn smiled. "Who said we were using the front entrance? Pigeon lives in the back."
Peter's eyes widened. "Pigeon?"
Flynn marched confidently around to the back of the run-down bar. "Pigeon!" he yelled.

Peter followed timidly, the guilty jewel banging around in his pocket.

"Pigeon!" Flynn yelled again.

"Keep your damn mouth shut, boy, the whole neighborhood can hear you mouth off!" snarled a small wrinkled man as he rose out of a refrigerator box.

"Are you homeless?" Asked Peter, wrinkling his nose.

"So what if I am?" whispered Pigeon. "You gonna do something 'bout it, rich boy?"
"Shut up, Pan," Flynn snapped. He turned to Pigeon. "Pigeon, this boy wants to have you price a jewel."
"Well," said Pigeon, examining the Crystal as Peter produced it out of his pocket. "Where did a little clucker like you get a big thing like that?"
Peter pulled the jewel away as Pigeon reached for it. "I—"

Flynn smirked. "He stole it, Pigeon."
Pigeon reached for the Crystal, and this time, Peter didn't yank it out of his hands.

Flynn smiled. "He's as charming a thief as me. After all, who doesn't love me?"

Pigeon grunted and shook his head. "Someday your charms will land you in a windowless jail cell, Rider."

Flynn chuckled. "I'm too slick to ever get caught."
"Pride comes before a fall," predicted Pigeon.

Peter cut into the conversation. "Why does Flynn call you Pigeon?"
Pigeon looked up while fingering the crystal. "Pigeons are the official bird of New York, son."
Peter raised his eyebrows. "So?"
Pigeon leaned forward. "I'm everything that makes New York a swashbuckling light-flashing survival-of-the-fittest-city. I make a fortune out of pawning, drug dealing, and bartending. And look at me. I'm homeless too. There's no other person in this whole damn world that's more cut out for New York than me. That's why I'm a Pigeon; a hardcore bird in this mangy world."
Peter nodded approvingly. "That's cool."
Pigeon turned to Flynn. "How's your romance life coming along, Rider?"
Flynn shrugged. "The whole thing with Rapunzel isn't really working out. I mean, she's going all free-hearted on me. Taking monthly trips into the desert to paint, traveling to Costa Rica, always visiting her parents back in Corona. No time for me."
Pigeon weighed the jewel. "Anyone special? Besides Rapunzel?"
Flynn shifted his weight uneasily. "Well. There's this girl. I think she's pretty. She's really sassy, preppy, smart. And—yeah."
"Who is she?" Peter demanded. "Does she go to Disney High?"
"She's younger than me," Flynn confessed. "She's a freshman. Her name is Dani Spark. Know her?"

Peter tilted his head. "Um."
"She's got blonde hair, bangs. Gray eyes," Flynn prompted.

Peter waited for a second, and then grinned. "Riiiiight. I get it. Does she even know you exist?"
Flynn ran his hands through his hair. "I doubt it. I mean, she's one of those girls that love to sit and read Dramione fanfictions for hours, crying over when Hermione gets cancer and Draco is trying to save her life and all that crap."
Peter shook his head. "Man."
"I saw her reading a fanfic on her iPod, and I tried to be interested but I—Pan, I'm scared to talk to her."

Peter raised his eyebrows. "The Great Flynn Rider? Afraid to speak to a freshmen girl?"

Flynn averted his eyes.

Pigeon interrupted. "I can put a few thousand dollars on this jewel. It's worth quite a bit."
Peter grinned. "Awesome! Can I do the trade now?"
Pigeon glared. "Of course not, you ninny! Money trades are never done out in the open, when daylight is still shining! Come back tomorrow night."
"We have a party tomorrow night," Flynn reminded Peter.

"What he said," Peter snapped. "It's urgent. I can't miss it."
"Come afterward," Pigeon told him. "If you want your cash, that is. Hang onto the Crystal until then. If you change your mind, don't bother coming. I don't take kindly to boys that change their minds."
"Oh, I won't," said Peter, and him and Flynn vanished into the maze of city streets.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

I woke up and I knew I was dying already.

-Kida

The Crystal.

It's gone!

Kida felt her life slipping away.

"What should we do?" King asked her in panicked Atlantian.

"Arrest every juvenile delinquent at the high school!" Kida yelled. "Go! Whatever the cost…I want my Crystal back! And heaven help them if I don't get it!"