Kingdom Hearts ~another side~ Ch. 9

[Hayate]

Twinkle, twinkle, little star… Lead us to the land we dream of…

Kingdom Hearts ~another side~

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~ Report 9: Second Star to the Right ~[/b][/u]

The island paradise of green and blue that is Never Land. The gentlest of waves beat against the isle shores as clouds and rainbows stretch across the cerulean daytime sky. The air carried with it the bitter scent of saltwater. At one end of the archipelago, a red and gold pirate ship continually laps the coast of a small cove, like a mountain lion waiting patiently for its prey to come out of hiding. The passage of time waits for no man, least of all the crew of the Jolly Roger.

“Step lively, men!”, yells the captain of the vessel in all his mustached, red-coated splendor. As he shakes his hooked left hand in deep-seated anger, he continues, “Load all cannons! Be ready to fire on my command! We’ll draw that accursed Pan out even if we must blast this entire island to smithereens! I’ll have his head plastered on me wall by day’s end!”

One disenchanted pirate says under his breath, “Sure… As if we hadn’t heard that before…”

But not silently enough as to not be overheard. “Oh, a thousand pardons, Mr. Starkey.”, says the captain. “Does my crusade against Peter Pan not interest you?”

The pirate Starkey spins around to face his captain, holding his quivering arms to his sides. “Y-Yes! I-I mean, no, Cap’n Hook!”, he panickily stammers. “I meant no disrespect!”

Captain Hook, feigning empathy, says, “No, no. You’re right. It has become rather monotonous, hasn’t it? It’s a bit of excitement ye seek, correct?”

“W-Well…”

“Then here…” Hook suddenly reverses his sympathetic smile into a sinister scowl, coiling his hook hand through Starkey’s collar. “…See if the sharks have the excitement ye crave!” Hoisting Starkey up, Hook proceeds to fling his body overboard and into the water. Starkey’s fear-filled scream echoes for a second before being cut short by a splash. The not-to-be-trifled-with Hook shows his hook hand to the rest of the crew with, “And any who question my authority shall join him!”

The crew responds with a scattered, “Aye-aye, cap’n!”

As he leans on the edge of the ship, Hook brings his right hand up and rubs his temple in silent pain; his ‘crusade’ and Pan-induced stress had apparently brought him frequent migraines. “Oh, me poor nerves…”, he groans.

Then, almost on cue, in enters Hook’s dutiful first mate: the short, stocky Mr. Smee. He runs up to his captain rather hastily. “Cap’n! Cap’n!”, he cries. “We have a situation!”

“What is it now, Mr. Smee?”, Hook wearily asks.

“We have a stowaway on the ship!”

This news jerks Captain Hook out of his headache fit and fully alert. “What!? Is it Pan!?”

“No, sir! A little boy! Perhaps one of the Lost Boys! The men are giving chase below deck as we speak!”

“One of the Lost Boys, you say?”, Hook mutters through his grin, the gears in his mind starting to turn. Shoving Mr. Smee aside, he approaches a primitive form of loudspeaker and broadcasts his voice throughout his ship. “Attention, all hands!”, he starts. “A hundred doubloons to whomever brings the boy to me! He’s to be captured alive!”

With thoughts of such a reward swirling in their heads, the pirates of Captain Hook’s crew storm the holds of the ship in search of the Lost Boy.

Hiding inside a random cabin, the stowaway -- Roche -- peeks outside through narrow slits in the door, taking care to duck away when a pirate goes by. ‘Pirates!’, the kid mentally exclaims. ‘This would be kinda cool if I weren’t about to be keelhauled!’ Before long, the sounds of swinging swords and frenzied footsteps die down, and Roche is able to sneak out of the cabin and into the corridor. With his Keyblade at the ready, he moves about the ship as stealthily as possible. ‘This whole jumping-from-one-world-to-the-next thing is getting to be a drag! How many more worlds do I gotta go through to get home!? And where the heck are Ciel and Sis!? Bet they’re off having the time of their lives on some beach world or something!’

During this diatribe of a mad Keyblade wielder, Roche reaches a junction in the corridor where, at one end, he’s spotted by a pirate duo. “Hey, there he is!”, says one pirate to the other. “After ‘im!”

“Uh-oh!” Roche throws the Keyblade out in front of him and generates a wall of frost between himself and the pirates and races down the other path in the crossroads. Briefly looking back, he watches as the pirates break the wall down and immediately slip on the shattered ice, having a short laugh at this display. In his inattentiveness, however, he runs smack-dab into another pirate. Before the buccaneer could snatch the boy up, Roche rolls between his legs and pops back up at his rear, using a bit more Blizzard magic to freeze the pirate’s feet in place. He bolts away once more, dodging small pirate groupings at every turn, until he reaches the deck of the ship…

…where Captain Hook lie in wait with the rest of his crew.

Even with the power of the Keyblade on his side, Roche would have difficulty facing a crew of upwards of thirty people.

As a couple of pirates at the forefront of the group step to the side, the man in the feathered hat walks up to greet the teenager. “Is this him?”, he asks his first mate.

“Yes, sir, cap’n!”, Mr. Smee eagerly replies. “He fits the description to a T!”

Hook strokes his chin with the back of his hook hand, appearing initially puzzled. “He’s no Lost Boy I’ve seen before. No doubt the latest of that Pan’s youth-clinging recruits.”, he deduces. Meeting Roche’s eye to address him, Hook asks, “How did you get aboard my ship, brat?”

Lowering his guard for a moment, Roche awkwardly answers, “Well, it’s not like I planned on it. I just wound up here by accident.”

“Is that a fact…?”, the unconvinced Hook mutters. With a snap of his fingers, he orders his crew to… “Take him.”

In response, the thirty-odd pirates all draw their cutlasses on the lad.

“!!!” Roche prepares to defend himself with the Superquake, but is held by his skinny arms by a broad-shouldered pirate that had snuck around to his back. “H-Hey! Put me down! I told you, it was an accident!”

As he takes out a handkerchief to polish his hook, the captain continues, “Throw him in the brig. Bind his hands and legs so he can’t escape.”

The burly buccaneer carries the kicking and shouting Roche back below deck toward the brig.

Baffled by this course of action, Smee addresses the captain. “Why detain one of the Lost Boys, cap’n? Isn’t Peter Pan our intended quarry?”

“In due time, Mr. Smee.”, Hook responds. “For now…I’d like you to take a letter.”

…Meanwhile, somewhere on the east end of the archipelago, a pair of young boys -- one dressed as a fox, the other as a bear -- marches down the cliff path toward the lagoon, and the jungle just beyond it, while whistling a jaunty marching tune. Well-adjusted to their life in Never Land, the two exude a positive air that came only with years of childish fun and mischief. On their way to their hideout, a rather out-of-place sound catches the boy in the bear costume’s attention: the high-pitched whistle made by an object as it falls from the sky. Looking up, however, wasn’t his first notion. Upon glancing around his immediate vicinity, he turns to his friend. “Hey, Slightly, you hear somethin’?”, he manages to ask just before…

…an object from above hits the top of his head with a deafening clunk. “OW!” ‘Bear Boy’ goes down in a heartbeat.

“Hmm?” Slightly, the kid in the fox outfit, turns around to find his companion rubbing his head in pain. “Aw, c’mon, Cubby! Lying on the job again?”

“I’m not lyin’!”, Cubby defends. “Somethin’ hard hit me on the head!”

Looking down at his feet, Slightly finds a small cork-sealed bottle. He kneels down to pick it up and discovers a piece of paper inside. “What’s this…?” The bottle makes a soft pop as Slightly uncorks it, and he pulls the paper out to read it. “…!!!” A gasp escapes Slightly’s lips upon completing the message. “Oh, no! This is bad! C’mon, Cubby! We gotta find Peter, and quick!” With both bottle and message in hand, Slightly races toward the hideout.

“Hey! W-Wait for me!” Cubby rolls onto his feet in a turtle-like manner and scampers after.

Back on Captain Hook’s ship, a commotion is stirred below deck, to the frustration of any pirates nearby. From behind the resilience of a cabin door, Roche throws a fit of ramming his shoulder into the door and pounding it with his feet; he was physically capable of little else with his wrists and ankles bound. Ignoring the soreness this brings him, he shrieks at those outside, “Let me out! I’ve been locked up enough for one adventure! ARGH!”

The pirates standing guard outside the brig lower their eyebrows in aggravation. Remarks one to the other, “We shoulda taped his mouth shut.”

“You’d better hope I don’t get out of here…”, Roche continues, “…‘cuz if I do, I’m kicking all your butts!”

“Pipe down in there before we make ya!”

As the young Key bearer persists in his tantrum, a commotion of lesser magnitude is stirred deep in the heart of the Never Land jungle. In the center of a clearing stands a misshapen tree with no leaves. Most of its branches had long been sawed off and made into crude entrances that lead underground. The interior of the tree and a radius of several meters beneath it were hollowed out for a hideout to be made.

Inside this hideout, Lost Boys Slightly and Cubby meet with their leader: the flying boy in green and the bane of Captain Hook’s existence, Peter Pan. “What!?”, Peter cries, leaping to his feet. “Hook’s taken Nibs prisoner!?”

“That’s what it says in the note we found!”, explains Slightly, holding up the note in question. “‘Peter Pan, I’ve captured one of your precious Lost Boys. If you wish him returned safely, meet me on Skull Rock before sunset to arrange an exchange. Yours in enmity, James Hook. Dictated, not read.’”

“Poor Nibs…”, Cubby sulks. “He must be really scared…”

Just then, a sparkle of golden light enters and flies swiftly around the trio, leaving behind it a trail of yellow dust. The sparkle pauses midflight before Peter’s face, revealing itself to be a beautiful blonde fairy in a tiny green dress and green slippers.

“Hmm? What is it, ‘Tink’?”, asks Peter, addressing the little fairy.

The fairy named ‘Tink’ flies over to the other end of the hideout, casting her fairy light on a third Lost Boy sleeping soundly in a hammock. Like Slightly and Cubby’s fondness for dressing up like animals, this boy wears the long ears, floppy feet, and fluffy tail of a rabbit. His buckteeth made the ensemble all the more authentic.

“…NIBS!”, Peter, Slightly, and Cubby shout in chorus…

…jerking the rabbit kid from his slumber. “What!? Who!? What’s going on!? What’d I miss!?”

Peter scratches his head in bewilderment. “That’s weird. If all the Lost Boys are here, who does Hook have captured?”

“It’s gotta be a trick!”, suggests Slightly. “He wants to lure us into a trap!”

“A trap, eh?” Oddly enough, the thought brings a grin to Pan’s lips. “Heh! Sounds like fun!”

Slightly and Cubby look to each other with baffled expressions. “…Huh?”

…Just under an hour later, Captain Hook is seen inside the cavern on Skull Rock with an escort consisting of Mr. Smee and ten other pirates. Two of the pirates stand near Roche, whose entire upper body was bound with rope. As Hook and his escorts await the arrival of Peter Pan and his band of merry boys, the captain taps his foot on the damp cave floor. Reaching into an inner coat pocket, Hook pulls out a gold pocket watch and observes the time. “…Three minutes ‘til sunset.”

“What shall we do with the prisoner…”, Mr. Smee starts, “…if Pan doesn’t show up, cap’n?”

Hook reassures, “Oh, he’ll show. If there’s one thing that scurvy brat values more than a good game, it’s the well-being of his little playmates. And if not…we throw him to the sharks.”

Roche goes cold with fear. Captain Hook was a pirate in the darkest sense of the word. He was cruel, cunning, calculating, and wasn’t above dishing out his brand of piracy to children. Roche could only pray that this Peter Pan makes an appearance. “…”

“Captain!”, one pirate shouts, pointing his index finger skyward. “Look up there!”

All eyes in the cave turn up, and the party looks on as Peter Pan and the Lost Boys enter through the right eye of the ‘skull’. Roche’s eyes widen with surprise as the four arrive by self-propelled flight. “T-They’re flying…!”

In the order of Peter, Slightly, Nibs, and (ungracefully) Cubby, the airborne children descend and land across from Hook and his crew.

“Ah, Peter Pan. So considerate of you to join us.”, Hook hisses. “I’d almost given up hope you wouldn’t come.”

Peter retorts, “Well, that wouldn’t have been very nice. Especially after getting your invitation.”

“Look, Pan! That’s gotta be the other Lost Boy!”, says Slightly, clearly referring to Roche.

“Why, yes. Good eye, lad. …I offer you this, Peter Pan. Surrender yourself over to me…” As he talks, Hook ruffles Roche’s hair with his hand. “…and I let your little friend here go free. Refuse and, well… Heh. You see where I’m going with this, I’m sure.”

Peter meets Roche’s eye for a moment… “…”

“…”

…and eventually decides, “…Nah.”

“…What?”

With a shrug and a turn away, Pan elaborates, “He’s no friend of mine. Never seen him before in my life. Do whatever you want with him.”

Hook and Roche’s jaws drop at this remark. “Oh, come on!”, the boy whines. “I don’t wanna be fish food!”

The sparrow’s sudden aloofness had caught Hook off-guard, but it hadn’t made the pirate captain any more pleasant. “Grrrr… You’ll not make a fool of me this day, boy! Look sharp, men! Kill the whole lot of--” Hook’s wrath is cut short as the Lost Boys’ fairy friend ‘Tink’ flutters around him and his crew. He brings his hand up to swat her as if she were a fly. “Argh! Blasted pixie!”

“Ha-ha! Alright, Tinker Bell!”, Nibs excitedly cheers.

While Tinker Bell entertains the pirate crew with her aerial elegance, Slightly sneaks around to Roche’s back and undoes the knots in the ropes binding him. “Hold still! I’ll get ya outta this!”

“You’re helping me…?”, a surprised Roche queries.

“Sure! Peter says it’s all part o’ the game!”

“‘Game’? …Ah! Behind you!”

Slightly notices a large shadow being cast over him, and just out of the corner of his eye, he sees a cutlass-wielding pirate closing in. “!!!”

In the mere seconds that followed, Roche wriggles his way out of the loosened rope, draws the Keyblade, hops to his feet, and delivers a violent horizontal slash to the looming pirate’s chest. The brute falls back from the attack and hits the ground harshly.

“…Wow…”

“You can be impressed later, okay? Let’s go help your friends!”

“Right!”

[BGM: Vim and Vigor]

Near the other end of the cavern, Peter fends off the offensive of a pirate trio, meeting two-foot-long sword with six-inch dagger. With some well-placed footing and fluid arm swings, the boy in green tights holds his own in spite of the three-to-one handicap.

Nibs and Cubby, on the other hand, employ a number of childish tactics that include tripping the pirates over, pulling their hats down over their eyes, making them dizzy, and firing upon them with rocks and slingshots. While these tactics prove effective to some extent, it isn’t until Roche jumps in with the Keyblade that the pirates are ultimately removed from the equation.

After a bout of feverish fly-swatting, Captain Hook finally manages to snatch Tinker Bell out of the air and seize her petite form in his fingers. As much as the enraged captain would’ve loved to clip the fairy’s wings then and there, a cold and wet sensation at his ankles turns his attention downward. Seawater had begun to fill the cavern. “Drat! We’re out of time, it would seem! Fall back to the shores, men! To the boats!”

“Aye-aye, cap’n!” By Hook’s leave, the pirates start to make for the entrance to Skull Rock, but not before claiming their initially intended quarry: Peter Pan in iron shackles. With Peter in tow, the crew drags him toward the shore by his collar.

“Peter!”

“Tinker Bell!”

“Get back here, Hook!”, Roche shouts, immediately giving chase.

As soon as the entrance divides them, Hook briefly turns back to the Lost Boys in the cavern and draws a flintlock pistol. Aiming it at Roche at first, he angles it upward and fires a single shot. The bullet ignites a stick of dynamite that, in turn, ignites a number of additional strategically-placed explosives. Once set off, a series of adjoining explosions causes the Skull Rock entrances to give way, and the falling rubble plugs them shut, trapping Roche and the Lost Boys inside.

“No!!!”, Peter cries in horror, feeling utterly helpless.

“Hmph. That takes care of that.”, the satisfied Hook says to himself. Pocketing his firearm, he removes his feathered hat to bow courteously. “Enjoy the rising tide, kiddies.”

Tinker Bell becomes furious at this deed, lighting her whole body aglow with a passionate shade of red. The intense heat generated by her form burns Hook’s hand…

“YOW!”

…allowing her to fly up and away.

One pirate unsheathes his sword at this… “She’s gettin’ away!”

…but Hook holds out his hand to cut him off. “Leave her. She’s but a little sprite. She can’t help them. Not now. …Come! To the ship!”

“Aye, cap’n.”

As Peter is dragged away by his collar and thrown onto a rowboat bound for Hook’s pirate ship, he watches helplessly as Skull Rock falls further and further into the distance. “…”

On the other side of the cave-in, Roche tries to break through the wall of stone with the Keyblade but to little effect, especially with the tide having come in at torso level and rising still at a rate of a foot a minute. “Argh! It’s no good!”, Roche gripes. “The water’s too high!”

Nearby, Nibs climbs onto Cubby’s shoulders, much to the chubby kid’s discomfort. “Hey! What are you doin’!?”

“I dunno how to swim, dummy!”

Roche dives below the surface to take another whack at the wall, but finds his blows are softened due to the water. He shortly resurfaces to catch his breath. “It’s no use…!”, he concedes between breaths. “I just…can’t break through it…!”

“What are we gonna do…?”, asks Slightly as the despair starts to set in.

Glancing above him, Roche observes a rocky ledge that seemed capable of supporting several people. He jumps up to grab the ledge with both hands. “Come on! Climb up!”, he then directs to the Lost Boys.

The three quickly paddle over and use Roche as a ladder to climb onto the ledge. Once the three are safe from the rising water, Roche lets go of the ledge and falls back in. “What about you?”, a nervous Nibs inquires.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I’m gonna get us outta this.”

“How? You steal one o’ Hook’s bombs?”

“Nope…but I’ve got something just as good! Wait here!” Roche takes a deep breath and dives back beneath the surface of the water.

“Y’know…”, starts Slightly. “For someone who isn’t a Lost Boy, he’s kinda cool, huh?”

“Heh-heh! Yup!”

Roche swims down to the wall of stone once more and readies the Superquake. But rather than swing at it again, he holds it out horizontally in front of him and presses his palm to the blade. The weapon begins to pour out a steady flow of energy that swirls in a sphere before him; what starts out as a freeform magical flame soon takes the shape of a large disc. Roche affixes the disc to the wall -- it clings to the submerged rock almost magnetically -- and immediately backs away several feet. He puts the Keyblade away, shuts his eyes tightly, and covers his ears.

The disc, and the condensed magic within, detonates just moments later, engulfing the stone wall in miraculous fire. Through the crumbling barrier, seawater bursts forth from the skull and unites with the ocean outside.

From the Lost Boys’ viewpoint, the water level drops within seconds, encouraging their cheers. They promptly jump from the ledge and float down to Roche’s side with joyful shouts of “Yay” and “Hooray!”

Upon catching his breath, Roche rises to his feet. “Heh. Glad you guys are okay. Now c’mon, let’s go save Peter!” The Keyblade kid makes for the shores…

…but stops short of a full sprint when Slightly calls out, “Wait!”

“H-Huh? What is it?”

“The only way off Skull Rock is by boat or by flying. And I bet Hook took all the boats when he left.”

“Oh… That is a problem… And I sure as heck can’t fly…” Just then, a spark of gold swoops in from above and encircles Roche before stopping to hover before him. “Ah! Tinker Bell!”

The Lost Boys all give a sly smirk. “We can help with that.”

…Cut to Hook’s ship in the cove, where a most harrowing scene unfolds. Lost Boy leader and spirit of youth Peter Pan stands at the edge of the plank, his hands bound by rope and tied to an anchor. The briny deep below swirls with black and turquoise malice. To his rear, a band of pirates stood with swords at the ready, effectively giving the boy a choice of drowning or being skewered. To the pirates’ rear was Hook, with whom Peter shares a look of resentment.

“Oh, ‘tis a glorious day, is it not, Mr. Smee?”, asks Hook to his stout first mate. “With this, I’ll be rid of all the Lost Boys, and it’s not even suppertime.”

“Oh, yes, cap’n!” replies the brownnosing Smee. “‘Tis quite a grand day to be a pirate!”

“Hehehe. Indeed it is. And now for the icing on the cake… Any last words before ye take the plunge, Pan?”

With a grin, Peter responds, “Yeah. Can I at least change into my swimsuit first?”

Hook indulges Peter’s try at humor with a derisive chuckle. “Complaisant to a fault, I see. Glad to know seconds away from certain death doesn’t make you any less so. By all means, have your laugh. It makes none the difference to me…for it is I who shall laugh last!”

“That’s what you think, Hook!”

“!!!” Hook’s eyes, as well as those of his crew, shift upward where they happen upon a silhouette standing atop the yard. “Who dares!?” The glare of the setting Never Land sun dies away, and Roche comes into view. “Swoggle me eyes! You!?”

In a feat of athleticism, Roche leaps from the yard to the rope shroud, riding it down to the port-side bulwark. Here, he points his Keyblade on Hook and his men. “Alright, you old codfish!”, he snaps. “I’ll be taking Peter back now!”

After a short awkward silence, Captain Hook and his crew have themselves a hearty laugh at the teen’s expense. During this, Hook challenges, “You and what navy, boy!?”

“…Funny you should ask.”, Roche comments.

At that moment, Tinker Bell emerges from behind him and soars forth, fluttering about Hook’s airspace and playfully mocking him, initiating a repeat performance of their earlier altercation. In enters Slightly, Nibs, and Cubby as well, serving to distract the crew’s numbers with their antics.

In the meantime, Roche jumps to the plank and cuts Peter loose. “Ahhh, much better! Thanks!”

“Don’t mention it.”

As Hook is led up and down the deck of the ship through Tinker Bell’s dizzying flight patterns, he calls out, “Smee! Don’t just stand there, ya blithering idiot! Do something!”

“R-Right away, cap’n!” Smee rushes to his captain’s side and, through a bit of clumsy hopping and jumping, manages to snare Tinker Bell in his hat… “Gotcha!” …if only for a second or two. Despite her tiny physique, the ensnared Tink flies in such a way that carries Smee backward over the ship and onto a lifeboat.

Even the pint-sized Lost Boys have little difficulty driving the members of Hook’s pirate crew overboard -- some through the use of gunpowder barrels, some by having them go after pieces of Hook’s treasure by tossing them into the sea. The power of greed wasn’t to be underestimated, it seemed.

With his crew dwindled to himself alone, Hook is confronted by Roche and Peter Pan. “It’s over, Hook!”, young Roche asserts.

Captain Hook grits his teeth and meets Roche’s Keyblade and Pan’s dagger with a gold-handled rapier. “Nay, boy! It’s not over until I’ve won! I’ll see you two bilge rats walk the plank yet!”

[BGM: Fight and Away]

Hook lunges forward with a flurry of rapier slashes and thrusts to slice his foes to ribbons; Roche counteracts with a show of Ars Arcanum. During this, Peter Pan zips around to Hook’s backside and attacks with his dagger. Hook brings his other arm around and greets Peter’s blade with his hook hand. As Roche’s assault closes, Hook swipes at Pan with an upward sword slash -- Peter backs away in time for the blade’s tip to cut into his shirt -- and quickly shifts his focus back to Roche. A furious meeting between rapier and Keyblade ensues, and Roche is pushed rearward due to the pirate captain’s superior swordsmanship. With a boot to Roche’s chest, Hook knocks the boy down and turns to see Pan approaching. Reaching into his coat, Hook pulls out a small gift box and throws it in Peter’s face. Within moments of its being thrown, the box -- concealing an explosive -- detonates. While the young sparrow fights off a coughing fit due to the smoke, Hook takes advantage of his disorientation by lunging forth and pinning Peter to the mainmast by his neck. With sword in hand, Hook prepares to finish the job, but not before Roche hops to his feet and sets the cantankerous captain’s pantaloons aflame with a Fire spell. With a pained yelp, Hook sprints wildly up and down the ship’s deck as fire and smoke stream from the seat of his pants. The Lost Boys have a laugh at this comical scene as they watch from the quarterdeck. Upon dousing the fire in a bucket of water, Hook returns to battle with a look of mortified hatred. Jumping behind one of the deck cannons, he takes aim at Roche, firing upon him with a barrage of cannonballs. It was now Roche’s turn to bolt up and down the ship’s deck, for fear of being hit. The Lost Boys take to the air as Hook shows regard to nothing in his cannon-firing rampage. With nowhere to go but up, Roche ascends the starboard-side shroud to the yardarm, balancing himself on the narrow wooden beam. Hook shortly joins him atop the beam and challenges him with his rapier, thus ensuing a second clash of blades. Again, Hook has the advantage of being the better swordsman, pushing Roche back toward the edge of the beam. With a well-placed thrust and swipe, Hook knocks the Keyblade out of Roche’s hand, causing it to fall into the sea below. A weaponless Roche stares down the length of Hook’s sword.

“…Give up, boy.”, the near-victorious captain snarls.

Roche bares a confident smirk and answers, “…Never.”

“Tch! Then perish!”, Hook roars, driving his blade forward.

Leaning backward to avoid the attack, Roche transitions into a backflip off the yardarm and takes the plunge.

“Odd’s fish!”, Hook exclaims in shock.

As he dives down to the sea, Roche suddenly calls out, “TINKER BELL!”

At Roche’s beckon, Tinker Bell swoops in from the side and circles around him several times, bathing him in the light of her pixie dust.

Roche closes his eyes and leaves the rest to fate.

Peter, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys, and Captain Hook look on with bated breath.

“…!!!” Mere milliseconds before hitting the water, Roche bears an abrupt north and takes flight! He coasts the water’s surface, briefly touching it with his hand, before gaining altitude. Like Pan and the Lost Boys before him, Roche is granted the miraculous gift of flight.

Slightly, Nibs, and Cubby congratulate him from a distance with their jubilant cheers.

Even Roche himself couldn’t help but give a cry of, “WHOO-HOO!!! I’M FLYING!!! THIS IS SO AWESOME!!!”

“Grrrr… Blast him, you swabs!”, Hook shrieks at his crew. “Blast him out of the sky!”

After making their way back onto the ship, several of the pirates take aim at Roche with the deck cannons and fire upon him. With his new ability, however, Roche is able to evade the incoming cannonballs with ease. The airborne teen holds his hand out to recover the Superquake and fires back upon the cannons with Fire and Thunder, disabling and preventing further use of them. “Is that all you’ve got, Hook!?”, boasts Roche from above.

“Argh!”

“In that case, I’ve got a little something for you!” With a twirl of the Keyblade, Roche points it up to the heavens. Moments later, a massive hunk of burning rock descends from the vastness of space and enters Never Land’s atmosphere. Then, with a downward motion of his arm, Roche drops the meteor onto Hook’s ship; it tears greedily through the deck of the ship, below deck, the hold, and out through the underside of the hull and into the sea. With this, the ship takes on an immense quantity of water and starts to sink.

As he clenches to the mast for dear life, Hook wails, “My ship!”

The once-great Jolly Roger sinks beneath the depths, leaving nothing behind but a few planks of red- and gold-painted wood.

As he floats upon one, Hook raises his hook hand in anger and vows, “I’ll get you for this, if it’s the last thing I--” Again cut off in midsentence, Hook’s attention is drawn toward an out-of-place but frighteningly familiar sound: the tick-tock, tick-tock of an alarm clock. “…Oh, no…” Hook slowly turns his head to face the sound’s source…

…and is stared down by a pair of hungry yellow eyes and a scaly green snout.

“No… No! Go away, you reptilian menace!” Hook turns tail and beats a hasty retreat from the Crocodile, his panicked howl of “SMEE!!!” echoing across the waters.

The Lost Boys rejoice in their victory over Hook with a chant of “Hook is a codfish, a codfish, a codfish!”, while Roche and Peter Pan share a celebratory high-five.


“…Attention! Fall in!”

A short while later, just outside their hideout, the Lost Boys decide to conclude their adventure with a ceremony for Roche. The three stand shoulder-to-shoulder a couple feet behind Roche, while Peter stands in front of him wearing a bejeweled crown and holding up a simple sword. Tinker Bell is seen perched on Peter’s shoulder. “In honor…”, starts Peter, “…of your courage, determination, fighting skill, and for just being plain cool, I hereby proclaim you, Roche…a Lost Boy!” Peter christens Roche with the sword as one of royal standing would bestow knighthood upon another. “…Congratulations! You’re one of us now!”

Slightly, Nibs, Cubby, and Tinker Bell cheer for Roche once more as Peter dons him with a fur hood with mouse ears. “Heh! Cool! I still can’t believe I flew! I can’t wait to tell… Oh…”

“…What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s just… I just remembered there’s something I still need to do.”

“Awww… Does that mean you’re leavin’…?”, whines Cubby.

“Hey, c’mon. Look sharp. Lost Boys are supposed to be tough, aren’t they?”

“Yeah…”

“I’ll come back soon. And when I do, we’ll go on the biggest adventure ever! Deal?”

“Deal!”

“Hands in, guys!”, says Roche, holding out his hand. Slightly places his hand on top of Roche’s, Nibs places his on top of Slightly’s, Cubby’s on top of Nibs’, and Peter Pan’s on top of Cubby’s. “‘Lost Boys, now and forever’ on three! One…two…three!”

“LOST BOYS, NOW AND FOREVER!!!”

~ Next Report: Cacophony ~