Chapter 75: Playing Games

Jim lunged up two steps to Wendy.

"What happened?!"

Before Wendy could answer, Jim tackled Peter by the throat.

"Jim!" Wendy protested. She dodged Flynn's frying pan as he sailed into the fray. "Boys! Stop it! Jim – Peter didn't do any – "

"—Come on!" Ariel jerked forward, trying to find a point of entry. "Stop fighting! Peter! Jim!

"Hey!" Mulan shouted. She pointed. "Look out! Cogsworth! And Shang – "

"GET INTO THE AUDITORIUM!" Shang charged between Jim and Peter. Wrestling them apart, the captain hauled both boys up the steps. "ALL OF –"

"—one second!" Jim growled, hurling himself at Peter. Locking fists, the boys crashed into the castle. Half flying, half fighting, Peter dragged Jim across the corridor.

"Damn it, Rattail!" Peter swerved into the wall, missing Jim's fist by an inch. He retaliated with a left hook. "I didn't do anything!"

"She's bruised!" Jim snarled.

"Not me!" insisted Peter.

"Ripped sweater?" Jim threw a punch.

"Well…" Peter ducked. He grinned as Jim hit the wall. "…necessary perk. WHOA!"

Jim attacked. Slamming his shoulder into Peter's chest, he threw them down a flight of stairs. Peter quickly gained the advantage. Untangling his legs Peter lurched into the air.

"It was her father!" Peter protested, swooping overhead. "Her father, shit head! Some boyfriend you are that can't protect her!"

"She is NOT—" Jim yelled running at Peter. "—my girlfriend! AHRR!"

Lights exploded behind Jim's eyes as he collided with Peter's sneaker. Staggering back, he fell down a second flight and tumbled into Silver's kitchen. Dishes, pots, and pans smashed around him, spinning and shattering across the floor.

"Shit." Head throbbing, Jim rolled over chunks of broken ceramic. He winced as Morph bopped happily around the corner. "Shit."

"Morphy! Morph!"

Silver.

Relieved, Jim started to rise. He was sure that the cyborg would be able to explain Headmaster Mickey's actions and suggest a way to thwart the magical barricade right after helping him beat the crap out of Peter Pan.

"Morphy! Morph! Hush ye up! What kind of state are ye leavin' me galley? Ye'll wake the whole castle!"

Smiling, Jim reached for Morph and opened his mouth to call Silver.

Suddenly he paused.

Different voices started to speak.

"Cook! Can't you keep that pipsqueak quiet?"

Gaston.

Jim ducked back down, grabbing Morph and stuffing him under his shirt.

Another voice spoke.

"Oi! Not fair! Not fair! How come you get to make all the rules! Let them hear us, I say!"

Prince John.

Hushing Morph, Jim inched behind a mountain of dirty dishes. Silver's optical lazer slivered between the stacks. Confused, Jim waited as another voice spoke.

"Yeah! John's right! We're stuck here anyways – let's stick em like pigs!"

Kay.

"Attack from the inside."

Helga.

"Hunt the blaggards like animals!"

Clayton.

"Bleed em dry!"

Le Fou.

"Have a little fun."

Lana.

"Break a few hearts. Spill a little blood and guts."

Hans.

"Friends!"

Facilier.

Concern for Peter forgotten, Jim scanned for Facilier's shadow. His panic was interrupted by Facilier's screech.

"Friends!" Facilier continued, his voice rattling the plates at Jim's back. "Mickey's played his all his cards to keep our classmates safe. Well – "

Jim heard the sound of a flick and envisioned Facilier splaying an ace.

"—well!" Facilier ranted, bolstering an uproar. "Let's not wait! Let's squash his little magic trick for Maleficent and Hook! Let's take Fantasia School for the Magically Skewed, and skewer it through the heart!"

"Attack!"

"Everyone!"

"Let's get 'em!"

"Kill them!"

"Kill them all!"

"BELAY! ALL OF YE!"

The stacks of dishes jolted. Jim squeezed Morph through his shirt as the little creature wriggled excitedly at the sound of Silver's voice.

"Shut up! All of ye!" Silver growled over his burning gears.. "No one does nothin' unless I says so! Maleficent put ye all under my charge – so I SAYS when we attack! I SAYS when it's time to spill the blood! GOT IT?"

The dishes vibrated precariously as the cyborg marched back and forth. Jim felt the heat of Silver's gears.

"Convincing poker face." Facilier rumbled quietly. Jim could almost feel his cynical glare. "But your bluffing, Mr. cafeteria cook. Why shouldn't we attack? Huh? Why not? Got nothing to loose – except…oh what did Maleficent say at the dance…anyone remember…Lana?"

Lana sniffed. There was a regal pause - long enough for her to flick a wave of shimmering hair over her shoulder.

"The cyborg's pet." Lana's sneered. Jim felt his blood run cold. He heard Silver's cogs ticker furiously as Lana spoke. Her voice was pitched and baby-ish. "Does da wittwle cyborg not want to huwrt his wittle Jimbo fwriend?"

The students jeered.

Jim shifted. Drums pounded between his ears as he prepared to dart to Silver's aid.

Then Silver spoke. And for the first time, the cyborg's light voice became mechanical, pitiless, and inhumane.

"See here – all of ye. I toll' the villains once and now I'm tellin' you. I care only about Takin' Fantasia. That boy is a worthless pile of baggage that had to be steered awry before he strayed into the thick of Maleficent and Hook's plan. An' I'm the one that had to do the steerin' and foolin' and misguiding of the little nose whipping whelp!"

Gouged by Silver's every word, Jim closed his eyes. He felt a butter knife under his fingers.

"Then why wait?" challenged Facilier. The deck of cards shuffled between his hands. "Why not kill them all now?"

"Why wait? After all…" Lana added. "Since you…don't have a crush on Hawkins."

"Because!" Silver snapped before the cackling could start. "Because Merlin is still a wizard and Shang is still a war hero that could cripple each an every one of ye Because the Chosen One is still here! Because Maleficent and Hook want the Chosen One alive to unlock the Wishin' Star! ! Because Hawkins still has the map! And because…"

Silver growled like a robotic tiger. "Because what I says…goes."

The dishes quavered as Silver drew to his full height.

"Ye want te take fantasia?"

Jim peered through dirty stack as Silver smiled at the silent accord. "Well then…ye need a captain. A captain with an iron first and metal hand. Ye need…"

Jim receded as Silver's gears crackled.

"…ye need me."

Silence.

Suddenly, Silver cocked his head. The corner of his mechanical eye focused on Jim's hiding place.

Jim stopped breathing. He squeezed the wriggling Morph through his shirt. Heart in his mouth, Jim waited…counting every second…every booming heartbeat…

"So what now, then?"

Jim exhaled as Kay's boorish whines stuffed the silence.

"We just sit here, then? Like jack asses?"

"Follow the plan." Silver answered, head still cocked to the side. "Sneak upstairs. Listen and attack at my signal. Take all prisoners – we need the Chosen One alive."

"So upstairs with the lot of ye!" Silver barked, lumbering after the students. "Afore! And aft! I'll scope the auditorium! Make yerselves unseen! Find a good…."

Silver rest his mechanical hand on the doorframe. Tilting his head, he took one last sweep of the kitchen.

"…hiding place." the cyborg whispered before ducking out of sight.

Jim didn't dare breath.

At first he felt nothing. Perhaps nothing with a little disbelief. Clumsily, he stood, releasing Morph and rubbing all he had heard into his forehead.

Then…

"…shit!"

Jim went off like an alarm. Triggered into action, he sprinted for the door, mind racing two, three, four, and five steps ahead.

Get upstairs.

Warn everyone.

Protect. Fight.

Save Fantasia.

Save Fantasia from –

Jim stopped.

At the door he halted, dead in his tracks, buried in a gigantic shadow and pierced by a blood red laser.

Silver.

"Jimbo."

Silver sounded…scared. And…impressed.

Then, an easy, dangerous coyness smudged all expression from what remained of the cyborg's flesh. Glancing over each shoulder, Silver slunk into the kitchen.

"Playin' games?" Silver grinned, forcing Jim to retreat with fluid, aggressive strides. "Are we?"

Jim withdrew, eyes burning in hate with every backwards step.

"Yeah." Jim breathed. He paused, blocked by the stack of dishes at his back. "Yeah, we're playing games."

Silver rubbed his jaw, distracting the track of his mechanical hand behind his back. "Oh. I see. Well…I was….never much good at games."

Jim pressed back. Dishes bending against him, he crawled a hand blindly behind his own back.

Silver's gears hissed. Jim's eyes darted to the shadow of a pistol, revolving into the wrist socket.

Silver's grin faded as he stared into Jim's blue eyes.

"Always hated to loose."

Click.

"Hm." A butcher's knife caught between Jim's fingers.

For a second Jim glared into the cyborg's bright, glittering, human eye.

Then, he exploded forward.

"ME TO!"

Jim dove. The butcher's knife sunk into the cyborg's knee joint.

"ARRRRRGH!"

Peppered in gun fire, Jim sprinted beneath the mechanical hand. Slamming into the hallway, he charged up the steps, Morph bouncing behind. Silver's screams stung Jim's insides as he thundered through the castle, darted around corners, and –

"—Take this, Rat Tail!"

CRACK!

Warm blood gushed into Jim's mouth and stuck to his throat as Peter attacked from the side. Slamming down, Jim rolled. Spitting red, he caught Peter's fist.

"RUN!"

Instinctive alertness hit Peter's face, even as he questioned Jim. "What? What's – "

"Peter!"

"Jim!"

Throwing away Peter's fist, Jim scampered for Wendy and Ariel.

"RUN!" He hollered. Grabbing Ariel with one hand and Wendy with the other, Jim sprinted through the small band of students as a shrill bosun's pipe whistled from the kitchens. "JUST RUN!"

"CHANGE IN PLAN LADS!" Silver's voice raged through the castle. "WE MOVE NOW!

The students of Fantasia School for the Magically Skewed ran…

…just as Facilier's shadow lead the attack…

…screaming from the darkness…

…and blistering into Peter Pan…

…the boy missing half his soul.