Everything happened so fast that Wendy had a hard time keeping track of it all. A herd of large mechanical animals lined up in front of the pirates, creating a shield. A volley of darts flew over the large animals, but they didn't hit anyone. The lost boys then sent their smallest animals to penetrate the animal wall. There were a few muffled shouts of surprise from the pirates. Wendy watched as Peter guided a robotic beetle into the inner workings of a rhinoceros and a buffalo, gaining access to their control systems and sending them running out of the arena. Two pirates jumped down from the trees, shooting their guns as they landed. One of the twins turned bright green and shouted in dismay. Slightly managed to hit one of the pirates, who promptly turned blue. Mechanical animals were running and zooming all around, and the boys were furiously directing their avatars with their bodies and controllers, all the while trying to hit the pirates with their darts.
Nibs shouted a command and a large eagle dove down, extending its metal claws to the face of a pirate in a multicolored shirt. Peter ran out and shot the pirate while he was grappling with the eagle. Wendy could only vaguely tell which avatars belonged to which boy, and while she was mesmerized by the action, she was afraid to move from her spot. She saw another pirate above in a tree and attempted to shoot him, but the dart hit a squirrel next to him. The furry creature screeched and took on a dark purple hue.
Tink flew back and forth above them, yelling out orders and shouting insults at the other side. While she was doing her job with an air of authority, Wendy didn't think anyone was listening to her, which was a shame, because she had a good perspective of the playing field. Wendy ducked as a gorilla bounded over her head, and glanced up just in time to see Peter yanking a cord out of its neck until it went still.
"Stay together!" Tink shouted from above. "They're picking you off whenever you go out on your own!" Wendy looked over and saw Nibs stalking to the side of the arena, his arms and neck a vibrant pink color.
Wendy was getting dizzy. Maybe she shouldn't have been so bold back in the tree house. She probably would have been just fine watching the game from afar, or even on a screen miles away. But she wanted to participate, and for some reason she wanted to prove her worth. She scanned the area and saw that a couple more pirates had been hit, but the remaining players of their team still outnumbered the lost boys by quite a bit. All in all, it seemed like they were showing off more than actually trying to win the game. They displayed a lot of skill and technical prowess, but not a lot of observational reasoning.
"Peter," Wendy whispered. He grinned at her, but looked a little annoyed at the interruption. They were losing. "The one with the big hat has the plague."
Peter squinted in the direction Wendy was pointing. "Who, Noodler? How do you know?"
"He's been completely exposed this whole time," Wendy answered. "That other one in the yellow pants is pretending to have the plague, but he's far too anxious whenever a dart comes near him."
Peter studied the pirates for a while and then raised his eyebrows at her.
"I believe you're right." He pressed a button on his controller and spoke into his wrist. "Noodler has the plague!" He announced. "Everybody avoid Noodler!"
Wendy could just barely make out the responses of the other boys coming back into Peter's earpiece.
Just then a huge jaguar leaped on top of Peter, sending him flat onto his back. The cat's metal paws batted at his face. Peter struggled to open a panel on the jaguar's head, and finally got the door open to cut the robot's power. The machine collapsed on top of him, pinning him to the ground.
"Wendy! It's too heavy!" He cried. "Help me get this thing off!"
Wendy heaved at the fallen robot, but she couldn't get it to budge. Realizing he was going to be stuck there, Peter tried another tactic.
"Here," he said, extending his arm to Wendy. "Find something else to manipulate. I've already lost my beetle. It needs to be something big and not too complicated."
Wendy seized Peter's wrist and typed in the code he had shown her. A list of organisms came up on the tiny screen, and with shaking hands Wendy scrolled through them. There were birds, snakes, turtles, and wolves, but nothing that seemed like a good solution.
"Wendy, hurry!" Peter urged. One of the pirates, noticing that he was trapped, was heading their way.
Wendy furiously went through the list, willing her fingers and her brain to work together. Finally, near the very end of the list, she gasped.
"No way," she murmured, and selected the organism. Peter glanced at the controller and gaped.
"What the-"
But the machine had already sprung to life. The ground shook as a massive titanium tree rumbled into the arena, crawling forward by its roots. Peter guided the tree to fall onto its side and roll towards the pirates, sending them running in the other direction. He righted the tree again and guided it back to them. Wendy stared wide eyed as the tree bent down and wrapped its branches around the jaguar on Peter's chest, lifting it off and freeing him.
"Wendy, this is brilliant," he exclaimed, jumping up and taking cover behind the tree. He moved the tree into the pirate's area, keeping close behind it, and began shooting his darts at the pirates, carefully avoiding the one he had called Noodler. Wendy watched in growing anticipation. One more pirate down, two more shot. There couldn't be many more. Suddenly a pirate dropped from the trees behind Peter and shot him in the back. Peter groaned as his skin became blue. He shook his head as he walked to the side of the arena, but he still had a grin on his face.
Wendy assessed the damage on their side. The only ones that remained were Curly and one of the twins. And herself, but she didn't know if she even counted. She was in the system, but she didn't have a shadow. Of the pirates, she could see Noodler, one that was lying on the ground, one running around like a madman, and a tall one back behind a rock. Their best shot at winning was to get Curly to be hit.
She ran out from the bush, dodging a dart and jumping over a snake that reared up at her. She reached the twin first.
"Hide!" She commanded. "Run as far away as you can! You need to stay safe!"
The twin looked disappointed, but took off running towards a small cave. Wendy then crept over to Curly, who was shooting darts from behind a tree.
"It's not looking good," he admitted when he saw Wendy beside him. "I've lost both my avatars and there are still so many of them."
"Curly, you have nothing to lose!" She urged. "Just run over there and shoot as many pirates as you can. If you get hit, great!"
Curly gulped, but nodded, taking courage in Wendy's scheme. He took a deep breath and then jumped out from his post, charging at their opponents. He hit the one on the ground first, who apparently had been sleeping.
"What's going on?" The man said blearily. "Did we win?"
Next, Curly hit the crazy one, who cursed and turned a shade of orange that clashed horribly with his yellow pants. Wendy lost sight of Curly as he disappeared behind a large rock, but she heard a loud laugh followed by a low voice that sent a shiver through her.
"Hello, Curly," the man scoffed. "Are you quite certain you want to shoot me?"
There was a pause which seemed to stretch on forever, and then a small cry broke the silence, followed by a cloud of sweet smelling fumes.
"Noodler! You imbecile! What were you thinking?"
"I was just trying to protect you, Captain," came the sorrowful response.
"They've won, you fool!"
Curly came running out of the fumes, an expression of pure joy plastered to his face.
"They shot me! They shot me!" He yelled. All the lost boys whooped and came back into the arena, surrounding Curly and patting him on the back. Peter lifted Wendy off the ground and spun her in the air.
"Oh, the cleverness of me!" He boasted.
Wendy frowned, a little put off. "Oh, of course, I did nothing," she responded sarcastically.
Peter set her on the ground, leaving his hands on her shoulders and staring into her eyes.
"You were exceptional," he whispered. "But I brought you here."
*****
"Hey Slightly, look at these new data chips!" A twin exclaimed. "They might be small enough to hide in your tiny brain!"
Slightly huffed and turned back to a bin of brightly colored clothes. "Ooh, fancy!" He murmured, holding up a hideous vest with green and purple polka dots.
After their victory, the lost boys had gone home to retrieve their tokens for redemption at the supply depot, which was a small room off of the entrance cavern. The boys had flown up there, but since Wendy still didn't have a bodysuit, Peter had once again taken her up in the basket.
They hadn't brought all of their tokens. Wendy learned that Nibs always insisted that they keep some in reserves in case they ever had a losing streak. The shelves in the small space were filled with gadgets, batteries, wires and clothing. Wendy was drawn to a wall displaying various canned foods, dried meats, and candies. They hadn't eaten this morning in their hurry to get to the game. Peter noticed her staring and grabbed a few cans of fruit. It was still odd seeing him with blue skin, it made his green eyes stand out even more.
"I wish we could get some Drunken Vapor," a twin muttered. "I miss those crazy dreams."
The other twin looked wistful. "Yeah, too bad it was banned."
They turned and began ogling some seeds and small potted plants, discussing how they might be able to breed them.
"Where does all this stuff come from?" Wendy wondered aloud, scanning a pile of expensive looking headsets in the corner.
"The Crocodile brings it," Peter said simply.
"The Crocodile?" Wendy snorted, imagining a large reptile carting a stack of crates on its back through the tunnels, but Peter didn't elaborate.
"Hey! Look at the leaderboard!" Slightly called out, pointing to a screen in the corner. The look on Curly's face suggested that he would have blushed bright red if he hadn't already been that color from the pigment dart. Wendy glanced at the screen, seeing that it showed that Curly was in first place, followed by Nibs, Peter, and Captain Hook.
"Wow, Peter's never been in third place before," one of the twins observed.
At first Peter looked angry, but then he shrugged and clapped his hand jovially on Curly's shoulder.
"Well, I was gone for a couple days," he rationalized. "Congratulations, Curly. Enjoy your privileges."
"What privileges?" Wendy asked, her curiosity beating out her sense of propriety.
"Extra tokens, extra free time, the seat of honor at all meals, assigning the chores," Slightly said, counting each item on his fingers.
"Extra time in the Imagination Tower," Nibs added.
"It's a pretty big deal," Slightly stated.
"That's okay," Peter said, turning to Wendy with a smile. "This means I get to spend more time with you."
Wendy blushed, Nibs rolled his eyes, and the twins gagged, but Peter didn't seem fazed at all.