Chapter 142

Like a Codfish

Sora, Peter, Riku, Donald, Goofy, the Lost Boys, and the dreaming children marched through a jungle on their way to the next destination on their expatition after the stop by the Mollusk encampment. Peter and the Lost Boys told jokes, and everyone laughed along. On occasion, Heartless appeared and attacked them, but Sora, Peter, and Riku defeated them swiftly while Donald and Goofy protected the children. After each fight, Sora scanned the area to track the path that they had been following and reoriented himself before continuing.

"Your shadow can just… detach itself from you?" Riku asked incredulously after Peter began telling the story of how he met Wendy Darling. (Wendy and her brothers, John and Michael, had been on Neverland with Peter when Captain Hook, falsely believing that Wendy was one of the seven Princesses, abducted her. After she was rescued, they asked to be brought back to London.)

"Yeah. It goes off on its own sometimes," Peter replied indifferently. "I sometimes let it out to play a trick on the pirates."

"You should have seen Hook's reaction when he finally caught up to the shadow only for Pan to not be there!" Slightly said with a laugh.

Too caught up in their tales and jokes, no one heard as two pairs of hands clamped over the Twins' mouths and pulled them back behind a bush.

"No one ever lets Hook catch a break, huh?" Sora remarked. He recalled, when talking with Roxas about their least favorite Heartless, his Nobody had told him about how a giant flying Heartless had dropped out of the sky and crashed on Hook's ship before it had faded away; even perishing Heartless took the opportunity to torment the poor pirate.

"Nope. It's not a match with the old codfish if we don't watch him flop on the deck," Peter replied. Everyone laughed to at least some extent (Riku merely chuckled) at the quip.

Donald stopped dead in his tracks. "Something's not right," he muttered. "We're missing a couple voices." He looked around the whole group and realized the problem. "The Twins are missing!" he shouted.

Everyone stopped and looked around, realizing that the boys in raccoon costumes were nowhere to be seen. "Where'd they go?" one of the dreaming children asked.

"Someone must've nabbed 'em," Nibs surmised.

Goofy raised an ear, listening for voices or grunts. He pointed to the nearest voice. "I hear one of the kidnappers!"

"Freeze!" Donald shouted, casting Blizzara. An adult male voice could be heard yelping in fright and pain. The party pushed through the brush, where they saw a burly man with a bandana on his head, trapped from the shoulders down in a block of ice. The children and some of the Lost Boys laughed at the man's predicament.

Peter, the Lost Boys, and Riku recognized him. "Well, well. What do we have here? A pirate sneaking around," Peter said, his hands on his hips and a smarmy smile on his lips. "Looks like Hook is looking for trouble!"

"So the pirates took the Twins!" Sora said. Goofy charged through the trees, hoping to catch the pirates before they got too far. However, a couple minutes later, he returned empty-handed, his head hung low. He shook his head to confirm that neither the pirates nor the boys were anywhere to be seen.

"Wow. They work fast," Riku remarked, impressed.

"The pirates took the Twins prisoner!" Cubby cried out in panic.

"Don't worry. We'll just have to rescue them!" one of the dreaming children declared. The other children cheered, ready to hunt down the pirates.

"On the plus side, we have a prisoner, too," Riku said. He approached the pirate and stuck his hand under his chin. He snapped his fingers, causing a small fire to flare from the tip of his index finger, which he held close enough to burn away a hair on the pirate's stubble. "Now, where is your crew taking the boys?"

Before the pirate could answer, Peter touched Riku on the arm. "Aw, there's no need for that. We'll just follow the tried-and-true Lost Boys tracking method," he said.

"Yeah! We can track anything as long as it leaves a trail!" Slightly declared proudly. Cubby, Nibs and Tootles nodded in agreement. Riku frowned and pulled his arm away, extinguishing the flame.

"Actually," Sora interjected, "I think we should go with Riku's idea and get some information out of him. We can narrow our search and make it easier to find them that way."

Peter pouted, but then sighed and shrugged. "Alright. You're the leader, Sora, so you get the final say," he relented.

Sora nodded and turned to Riku. "Carry on," he said mischievously.

Smirking, Riku reignited the finger flame and held it under the pirate's chin. The pirate craned his head back in an attempt to get away from the fire, but Riku followed him. "Alright! Alright! I'll talk!" the pirate cried out. "The Jolly Roger is off from the eastern cliff. We climbed up from there; the others will climb down there with the boys."

Riku closed his fist, dismissing the flame. "Thanks."

Sora unrolled the map and studied it, recalling where they were and trying to figure out what direction they needed to go. "Uh, which way to the eastern cliff?" he asked.

Nibs pointed in the proper direction. "That way, Sora!"

Sora nodded and rolled the map back up before pocketing it. "Alright. Let's go find some Lost Boys." They marched off, with him in the lead, leaving the pirate behind, still trapped in ice.

When they came out of the jungle onto the eastern cliff, they could see, in the distance, a red pirate ship with three masts and a black flag with the skull-and-crossbones symbol flying at the top of the middle mast. Sora noticed that much of the ship had been replaced with newer wood, most likely due to the damage sustained when the giant Heartless crashed onto it.

"There it is, men. The Jolly Roger," Peter announced.

Goofy peered over the water and spied a rowboat heading off toward the ship. He pointed down at it. "The pirates must be taking the Twins to the ship," he reported.

Peter squinted at the rowboat, his eagle eyes taking in its passengers. "I see two men with them. What? Did they think three men would be enough if we caught up to them early?"

Before they could muse further, there was a bang as a large iron ball flew from the ship to the cliff, crashing just below the rock ledge with explosive force. Everyone stumbled as the earth shook beneath them, and some of the dreaming children fell down.

"They're firing on us!" Sora cried out.

Rather than be afraid of being hit with a cannonball, Peter merely groaned. "Use hostages to lure us to a set place and then fire cannonballs at us? Come on, Hook! You've done this before. At least try something fresh!"

"Well, how about this?!" A pirate jumped out from behind a rock and tried to slice Riku with his sword, but the silver-haired Keybearer quickly spun around and blocked the attack, pushing back hard enough to shove him onto his back. More pirates came out of hiding and approached to surround the party, although a couple of them stopped and ducked as another cannonball roared past them.

Peter grinned and drew his dagger. "Fighting pirates while dodging cannonballs. Now that's more like it!" He blocked a sword strike with his dagger, then jumped over his opponent and kicked him in the back. The Lost Boys drew their swords, and Cubby passed swords and clubs from his backpack to each of the dreaming children.

Sora parried a pirate's strike and retaliated with a blow that knocked him down, then ran around to reach Peter. "Hey, will the kids be alright? They could get hurt," he said, concerned.

"Nah. They'll be perfectly fine," Peter assured him. "Even if they are dealt with a mortal blow—" A panicked expression flashed across Sora's face "—they'll just get shot right out of Neverland and into another dream."

There were six pirates in total. While they were more experienced and skilled than most of the Lost Boys and all of the dreaming children, they were greatly outnumbered. Against Peter Pan, Sora, Riku, Donald, and Goofy, they were outmatched as well; the only reasons that the fight was not over within a minute were because everyone had to avoid getting hit with the cannonballs, and because Peter advised Sora and Riku to go easy so that the kids could have fun (or someone would have to switch sides to make things more interesting). As a result, the veteran fighters wound up doing little more than parrying the pirates' strikes, shielding Lost Boys and dreaming children from blows that they failed to parry themselves, and blocking cannonballs with Reflega and Goofy's shield. Two of the dreaming children were struck with swords and instantly vanished in shimmers of light

After several minutes of fighting, Sora approached Peter. "Even if we beat the pirates, we're still gonna have cannons firing on us," he pointed out. "And I don't really want to wait for Hook to run out of ammo." He parried a pirate's sword and pushed him back, then slid around him to block a cannonball from hitting him.

"Good point. Okay. You all deal with these lunks. I'll go get the Twins and teach that codfish a lesson," Peter said confidently.

"All by yourself? How many guys does Hook have left with him?"

"Just a couple. They'll be on the cannons, and I bet he's got Smee guarding the Twins. It'll be a piece of cake!"

Before Sora could respond, four Pirate and two Air Pirate Heartless materialized.

"Hey, now the fight's even!" Peter cheered.

"Uh, Peter? Nothing bad might happen to the kids if the pirates get them, but if the Heartless get them, they'll lose their hearts just like they would if they were awake," Sora explained.

"Oh. Fair point. Well, I'm sure you can handle it. Good luck!" He jumped off of the ground, but stopped as a thought occurred to him. "You can come on over when you're done here if you want. But while we're all in open fight, the captain is mine!" With that, he flew off toward the Jolly Roger, weaving around to avoid the cannonballs that the pirate ship fired.

Sora sighed as he parried a Pirate Heartless and knocked it down. "He's fun, but he can be really oblivious," he said to himself. He lifted himself off of the ground and cast Blizzard at one of the Air Pirates to get its attention, then shouted to his friends: "Keep the Heartless away from the kids!" The Air Pirate flew at him with a diving kick, but Sora caught it by the leg, spun it around, and threw it at the other Air Pirate.

"It's Pan!" one of the cannoneers shouted as the flying boy approached the ship. Peter simply laughed and drew his dagger.

"Well, you know what to do, men!" the pirates' captain called back, sneering at his nemesis. James Bartholomew Hook, better known as Captain Hook, was a tall, lean man who appeared to be in his forties, although his time spent in Neverland meant that he was much older. He had a prominent chin, brown eyes, and greasy black hair that was bunched up around his shoulders, as well as a straight, thin moustache. He wore a bright red jacket with gold trim and large maroon cuffs that were secured with gold buttons, a white undershirt with frilly cuffs, maroon stockings underneath tall white socks, black shoes with large tongues that stuck up over his ankles, a white cravat, and a wide-brimmed maroon hat with a massive bunch of white feathers sticking up. A scabbard sat at his left hip, where he kept his gold-handled rapier, and a pistol was holstered at his right hip. His most distinct feature was a steel hook that took the place of his left hand, which had been cut off long ago by Peter Pan and fed to a crocodile. While he did not mind having to use the hook for the rest of his life, Hook came to despise Peter both for the indignity and subsequent consistent humiliation in combat, as well as because the crocodile had gained an appetite for his flesh and went on to pursue him endlessly in hopes of eating the rest of him.

Peter grinned and thumbed his nose at Hook. One of the cannoneers swung his sword at him, but Peter parried and passed him without slowing down. He looped up and came back down feet-first, kicking him in the face and knocking him out. The other cannoneer charged at him. Peter parried, sliced at the pirate's arm, parried again, tripped his foe, and then whacked the pirate in the temple with the pommel of his dagger, knocking him out.

"Blast that Peter Pan!" Captain Hook complained aloud. He drew his sword and ran down to confront his foe.

Peter smirked and pointed his dagger at the pirate captain, challenging his rival to a duel. While Hook saw the war as a matter of pride and revenge, it was all just a game to the boy who refused to grow up. He did not let the battle consume him or even bring him down a little bit; to him, it was just another facet of his life that he took thrill in. That was another reason why Pan infuriated Hook so much: for all of the trouble he caused him and his frequent disrespect, Hook had to admit to himself that Pan had the good form that he himself valued and had sought to demonstrate for most of his life. He was prideful and conceited, but not reprehensibly so, and he never tried to overly justify himself. And while he played tricks, insulted incessantly, and took advantage of the difference in abilities between them, he never fought or acted dishonorably. The fact that such an infuriating boy had such good form made Hook want to vanquish him even more.

"You won't get away from me this time, Peter Pan!" Hook challenged.

"Come and get it, you old codfish!" Peter taunted.

The duel began. Hook closed in and slashed and stabbed at Peter, who managed to parry each strike, although he was nicked on the arm by one slash. Peter leapt up and floated sideways to dodge another blow, then pushed Hook's blade further down with his dagger, before releasing it as the pirate pulled it up with all his might to cause him to stumble backward. Hook regained his balance and swiped at Peter sideways, but the boy ducked, then jumped over the pirate's head and poked him in the butt with the tip of his dagger, causing him to jump up in pain.

"You scurvy brat!" Hook roared. He brought his sword down hard, but Peter blocked it with his dagger. Peter pushed back against him, gaining momentum and shoving him backward.

"Thank you, Captain!" Peter said in reply to the insult. Incensed, Hook stabbed at him, but Peter jumped up and stood on top of the horizontal blade and wagged his fingers beside his head with his dagger held between his teeth. Peter then backflipped off of the sword, kicking Hook in the nose as he did so.

Riku parried a Pirate's sword and finished the Heartless off by leaping up and impaling it through the head with his Keyblade. He turned and saw Donald cause the last Air Pirate to crash into the ground with Graviga, after which Sora did a side flip and stabbed down at it. He looked around and saw that the Lost Boys, with some assistance from the dreaming children, had defeated all of Hook's pirates, who were lying bruised and dazed. Two of the kids had disappeared, having been struck by pirates' swords and ejected out of Neverland and into another dream. Donald cast Curaga to heal all wounds that had been sustained.

Sora peered over the horizon at the Jolly Roger. Cubby handed him a telescope to give him a better look at what was going on. "Peter and Hook are fighting," he reported. "I don't see the Twins. They must still be locked up. I'll go free them."

"Will you need a hand?" Tootles asked.

"You guys can come, too. But Peter probably wants to fight Hook himself. And I know my way around the ship intimately well." Sora flashed a teasing grin at Riku, who chuckled. With that, he flew off to the pirate ship. As he approached, he saw one of the cannoneers get back up and try to sneak up on Peter from behind, so he mimicked Peter's crow to get his attention and then kicked him in the jaw, knocking him right back out. The other pirate charged at him, but he blocked and pushed his blade to the side, then stunned him with a punch to the chest and grabbed his arm to throw him into the railing.

Captain Hook froze when he saw Sora, staring at the teen in terror and resignation. He groaned and slumped forward. "Not you… I'm supposed to be done dealing with the Heartless and Keybladers. I told that witch and that bulky brute to shove off, that I wanted to stay out of whatever they would be doing. I don't want to deal with any of this nonsense."

Sora shrugged. "Sorry, Hook. I guess it was just bad timing," he said sympathetically. "Tell you what. I'll just leave you two to your fight and go free your prisoners. Sound fair?"

Hook shrugged. "Very well."

Sora waved as he passed them and entered the ship's hallway. As soon as he closed the door, Peter and Hook continued fighting. He quickly found his way to the belowdecks (the door to which was not locked this time; he still kicked himself for not thinking to use the Keyblade to open it the first time he was there) and approached the brig from there. In front of the door was an old, portly, balding pirate who wore a blue-and-white striped short-sleeved shirt that left part of his belly exposed, dark blue shorts, a red stocking cap with a pom-pom on the tail, brown sandals, and half-moon spectacles that sat on his large, pink nose. Mr. Smee, Captain Hook's first mate, was making small talk with the Twins, who were stacked up so that one of them could see him through the peephole. When he turned and saw Sora, he jumped in fright and drew his cutlass shakily.

"If you w-want to get to the p-p-prisoners, you'll have to g-go through m-me!" Smee declared, trembling.

Sora simply pointed his Keyblade at the old pirate and said "Sleep." A thin grey mist enveloped Smee, accompanied by the sound of a sheep bleating, and he collapsed against the wall, snoring gently. Sora approached the brig door and tapped it with his Keyblade, then opened it to let the Lost Boys out.

"Wow. Thanks, Sora!" one of the boys said.

"Yeah! Thanks!" the other said.

Sora grinned at the twins. "Let's get you back to your friends." He led them out and up to the deck, where Peter and Hook were still fighting. Riku, Donald, Goofy, the rest of the Lost Boys, and the dreaming children were floating just off of the side of the ship, watching the duel. Riku and Goofy had carried the defeated pirates over and tossed them on top of the cannoneers. Sora could only imagine Hook's reaction to seeing Riku.

Peter parried and dodged Hook's blows and pushed back against him. He sometimes broke off to fly around and taunt the pirate, poking him in the butt again and pulling his hat down over his head hard enough to rip through the top, all with a childish cackle. Finally, he pushed him back against the railing and shoved him so he was leaning almost all the way over the ledge. Hearing a telltale ticking sound, Hook glanced at the water below him and cried out in fright as he saw a large green crocodile staring hungrily up at him.

"What's that?" a dreaming child asked.

"I think I know what he just saw," Donald remarked, chuckling.

In his panic, Hook nearly fell over, but Peter and Sora grabbed him by the legs and pulled him back up onto the deck. Hook took several deep breaths and groaned. "You win. I give up," he wheezed in defeat. The crocodile threw a dismayed punch, disappointed that its prey had avoided falling into its jaws.

"Why does it tick anyway?" Sora asked.

"It's a funny story, actually," Peter began. "After the croc swallowed his hand, it followed him and tried to get the rest of him. It showed up suddenly, gave him a real fright. He escaped and his men drove it off, but it swallowed his alarm clock."

"Yes, truly dreadful. Lucky for me, that clock still ticks in that beast's stomach," Hook added. "When I hear it, I know that it's near."

"The men and I call it Tick-Tock," Peter whispered to Sora in an aside. Sora could not help but chuckle.

The Lost Boys and the dreaming children landed and they, along with the Twins, ran up to Peter. "Amazing show!" Slightly commended.

"Are you guys alright?" Nibs asked the twins. The brothers nodded enthusiastically.

"Nice job getting the kids out of there," Riku told Sora. "Smee didn't give you too much trouble, did he?

Sora smirked at the subtle rib. "Not at all. He's fast asleep down there. Ba-a-a-a." He mimicked the sheep's bleating that he had heard when the spell was cast. Riku laughed.

Goofy looked around in confusion. "Huh? Where'd the ticking go?" he asked, raising an ear to try to hear better.

Everyone blinked in surprise and peered over the railing. The crocodile had disappeared, the ticking of the alarm clock gone as well.

"That's funny. Tick-Tock usually sticks around a little longer. Usually, the pirates have to drop a dinghy on his head to get him to go away quickly," Peter mused.

Riku sniffed the air and detected a faint odor mixed with the sea breeze. He looked up and saw another ship in the distance. "Cubby, right? Can I see that telescope?" he asked. The bear-costumed Lost Boy handed it to him, and he looked through it for an enlarged view of the new ship. When he realized what it was, he swore.

"Hey! No grown-up words!" Peter admonished.

Riku handed Sora the telescope to look through. "We might be in trouble," he said.

Sora looked through the telescope and went pale. "Oh, no…"

"What? What is it?" Hook asked, standing up and snatching the telescope out of Sora's hands. When he saw what was out there, he blanched even whiter than he had when he had seen the crocodile. "Swoggle me eyes…"

"What? What's everyone looking at?" Peter asked.

Hook turned around and slumped against the railing, unable to speak. The dark image of the ancient, barnacle-encrusted vessel with its tattered, mildewy sails was etched into his mind.

"It's the Flying Dutchman," Riku said.