"Time for medicine!" The twins announced as the alarms sounded. All of the boys broke away from instructing Tootles to run for their flasks.
"Oh, I love the medicine," Tootles admitted. "It took a little time for that lady to get me to take it, but when I finally did I wanted more!"
Peter peered at the young boy curiously, but then looked around for Wendy. He had gotten into the habit of filling his flask with more medicine so he could share it with her.
"Where's Wendy?" He asked, first looking behind her curtain and then down all the tunnels.
"Oh, she followed a little wolf out the door," Slightly said.
"When?"
"About an hour ago."
"Why didn't you tell me?" Peter exclaimed, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. Finding Wendy would probably be an easy task, but he was worried about her running around in Neverland by herself. He tried not to imagine her falling into a sand pit or being trampled by the Buffalostrich Rex.
He went to one of the screens and searched through the various feeds of Neverland, but she didn't show up anywhere. His hands started to shake. He kept telling himself that she was alright, that in a minute she'd show up and that they'd all laugh about it, but he had a feeling that something was very wrong. He'd never worried so much about somebody missing, even though sometimes the twins would be gone for entire days. He hadn't even been this distressed when he'd lost his shadow.
Peter rushed to the cabinet by his bed and rifled through his devices until he found his fingerprint collector. He was glad he hadn't pinned it back to his shoes, which were still on Wendy's feet. He pulled up Wendy's fingerprints and scanned the house. The most recent ones were at the tunnel by her room, and he ran towards it.
"Where are you going?" Curly inquired.
"To find Wendy."
"Oh, I'll come too."
"And me," Nibs added.
"Count us in!" The twins yelled.
"You'll definitely need me," Slightly assured.
"I'd like to help," Tootles said quietly.
Peter stared at them all, a little annoyed. He wasn't sure why he wanted to find Wendy by himself, but he quickly pushed the feeling away. If she was in danger then it would be useful to have as much help as he could get.
"Okay, but let's be careful," Peter conceded. "If she's in trouble, we don't want to make it worse." The boys followed him out the door and up the passageway as the collector continued to find her fingerprints. Peter rushed through the forest, only halfway listening to the conversation the other boys were having. Mostly Tootles was asking questions and Slightly was answering them. Finally they came to a rather disturbing tree. Wendy's fingerprints were all over it.
"What is that monstrosity?" Slightly remarked. "I don't remember seeing this before."
Peter squinted at it. As frightful as it looked, he could sense Wendy was a part of it. It must have been created from her Essentia. He crept through a large hole into the hollow trunk and shivered. This was where Wendy's fingerprints ended, as if the tree had swallowed her, but his collector had picked up some other fresh prints. Pirates.
*****
Peter peered through the small porthole and almost cried in relief. Wendy was sitting in the cabin, alone, looking unharmed and a little perturbed. He used the miracle knife Nibs had lent him to silently saw a large hole in the side of the ship. Captain Hook would not be happy, but they'd repair it later. He pushed the piece to the side and crawled into the cabin.
"Peter?" Wendy whispered, looking at him incredulously. He was surprised and a bit disappointed that she didn't seem scared, but in the next moment she had run over and wrapped her arms around him, soaking wet as he was, and suddenly he didn't mind that he had found her looking relatively calm.
"Peter, I need to ask you something," she stated when she finally broke away. "Captain Hook told me I have to leave Neverland, that someone is going to kill me."
Peter waved his hand dismissively. That man could put on a show and find his way around an electrical system, but Peter was certain the Captain was getting crazier by the day.
"Don't worry about it," he said. "Captain Hook is delusional." Wendy drew her eyebrows together, but didn't protest. "Here, put this on," Peter instructed.
"What is it?"
"It's a forever breathe mask," he explained, helping her situate the contraption over her mouth and nose. "We're going swimming, and we've got to hurry before the pirates realize there's a big chunk missing from their ship."
Wendy's eyes grew big, but she allowed Peter to guide her out of the hole in the ship and slipped into the water behind him. They dove down a few meters and then began swimming toward the shore. They didn't need to come up to breathe, but Peter knew the mask only had a few minutes of stored air in it, so he tried to hurry along, even though it seemed that Wendy wanted to inspect everything they passed. Most of the fish swam away as they went by, but a group of bright purple turtles glided along next to them for a while before turning for the cove. He saw Wendy start as a couple of mermaids appeared in front of them. He wondered why she was making such a fuss, but then had to remind himself that they probably didn't have many mermaids in the Grey World. He continued on, then noticed that Wendy was no longer behind him. He turned and saw the mermaids pulling her down to the bottom of the lagoon. He swam after them, pulling on their slippery tails and motioning in not so polite signs to leave her alone. The mermaids pouted, but finally released Wendy and swam off. He grabbed her hand and didn't let go until they had finally reached the shore.
"Those mermaids!" Wendy sputtered as she emerged from the water.
"Yeah, I think they were probably trying to drown you," Peter said with a shrug.
"What? Why?"
"Because they're in love with me," Peter said simply. "They tell me so every time I'm out in my fishing float, and then they sing songs to me." Peter was pleased to see Wendy's frown, but before she could say anything, they heard Nibs calling them from a few meters away.
"Where is he?" Wendy asked, glancing around.
"He's just there," Peter said, pointing to some moving sand. "He's wearing his chameleon suit, so you can't see him unless you're looking very carefully."
Nibs moved in front of a rock and immediately his suit changed to match the black matter of the stone. Peter and Wendy crept over to the rock and found all of the other lost boys hiding behind it.
"Wendy, I'm so glad you're safe!" Slightly gushed, and Peter glared at him.
"Wendy, I remember you," Tootles said, his face oddly serious. Then he shook his head. "You were there this morning!" He exclaimed happily.
"Is everybody ready?" Peter asked. The boys nodded.
"What are you doing?" Wendy asked, eying all of their gear.
"We're going to let the pirates capture us," Peter explained gleefully.
*****
They couldn't fly very high over the lagoon, but they skimmed along the water as they neared the ship. Soon they were spotted, and the pirates started launching what looked like canon balls at them. They were all able to dodge them, except for Curly, who caught one in the knee. Peter glanced back and watched the canon ball dissolve around him. A ripple went through his bodysuit, and then he faltered and fell into the lagoon. Peter flew back and plucked Curly out of the water.
"It was like that canon ball ate away all the magnets," Curly grunted, struggling to hold onto Peter's arms.
"Interesting," Peter murmured. His suit and pixie dust weren't strong enough to hold both of them in the air, so Curly was being half dragged through the water. When they reached the ship, Peter left Curly clinging to the edge.
"Try to climb up," he instructed, "or maybe I can find some spare rope to throw over." Peter flew up to the deck and saw the other boys already engaged with the pirates. Slightly and one of the twins were still flying, but the others were grounded. A canon ball sailed at him but he flew out of its path, only to get hit in the arm with a numbing barb. He grabbed a stray piece of rigging with his good arm and tossed it over the side, hoping it would reach Curly. Peter lighted on the deck and Cecco immediately came at him with a neon club. He reached into his belt and grabbed some tripping beads, throwing them at Cecco's feet. The beads clung to the large man's boots and snapped them together, causing him to tumble over himself. Peter started to fly towards the main sail, but a canon ball hit him in the shoulder. He felt the ball disintegrate and spread through his suit, breaking down all the magnetic substance. Peter wobbled in the air and managed to grab a beam to keep him from falling to the deck below. He looked around to see how the other boys were doing.
Smee and Noodler had unleashed some tickling hamsters on the twins, and the pair were writhing on the deck, laughing hysterically. Curly had climbed up onto the ship, but Bill Jukes had immediately knocked him out with some Insta-sleep spray. Slightly was making a valiant stand against Starkey and Alf Mason, the two pirates were stumbling around with double vision pellets embedded in their necks, but soon Whibbler came up behind Slightly and poured chicken ticks into his mouth, meaning that Slightly would be clucking and pecking for the next half hour. Peter smiled. Everything was going exactly as planned.
Suddenly a pair of boomerang birds wrapped around Peter's arms and pulled him down from the beam and into the clutches of Captain Hook. The intimidating man snarled at him and shoved him towards the other boys, who were being rounded up and tied together. Peter laughed. After all of their gadgets and inventions they were being restrained with something as simple as rope. He wriggled his fingers and clutched the miracle knife in his belt.
"The game is up!" Yelled Captain Hook. "Admit that we've won!"
"Ah, but you haven't caught us all yet," Peter replied cheekily.
"Oh, you mean your secret weapon?" Hook sneered, gesturing to the other side of the ship. For a moment Peter panicked, then he saw Bill Jukes struggling with what appeared to be nothing, but every now and then Peter could make out Nibs' eyes and mouth showing through his chameleon suit. Peter frowned, and Hook's triumph was instant.
"Ha!" He roared. "We found him lurking around the main mast, no doubt looking for your precious Wendy!"
The other pirates laughed as the nearly invisible Nibs was tied up with them, and Peter struggled against the ropes.
"Where is she?" He shouted.
"Don't worry, Peter, she's safe, for now," Hook assured with an evil glare. "Although she may not be terribly happy with what we have planned for her."
"You've won your game, now let her go!"
"I'm afraid it won't be that easy. You see, our ship is in need of a good cleaning, and that kind of work will probably take all week. Plus, we need someone to stand in for target practice," Hook remarked. "It will be such fun to see how she reacts to the poison ivy bullets."
The lost boys shouted insults at Hook, and Slightly clucked. Peter felt the color rise in his cheeks, angered that the pirates were actually considering such a punishment.
"However," Captain Hook continued, quieting the boys, "you can spare the girl this suffering if you, Peter, agree to stay here in her place."
Peter raised his eyebrows. "Me?"
"Yes, you stupid boy!" Spat Hook. "If you allow us to take you into custody and be our slave for the week, we'll let the lovely Wendy go free."
Peter screwed up his face. "Your slave? I don't think so."
"Oh no?" Hook pouted. "I was under the impression that you were in love with this girl."
Curly gasped and the twins laughed, but Peter became thoughtful. Love? He'd heard of it. The other boys and the pirates had talked about it as something magnificent and life changing, but also something that could ruin your life. Was it love? Was that how he felt about Wendy? He trembled as the truth of it became clear. Of course it was love. The reason for all his happiness, his confusion, the inexplicable feelings, the fear. From the first time he had seen her, that word, that feeling, had been brewing.
Peter blinked and focused back on Hook. "Nah, she doesn't really mean that much to me," he lied. "I just wanted to see what it'd be like to have a girl in Neverland."
But Hook smiled knowingly. He had seen. He knew. He sauntered over to Peter and whispered in his ear. "If you love her, you'll let her go," Hook drew back and gazed at him with a sad look in his eyes that Peter had sometimes noticed before. Then he straightened and strutted away.
"This is your last chance!" Hook announced, rounding on the boys. "Peter, give yourself up as our prisoner and we'll let the girl go!"
"Never!" Peter yelled triumphantly just as a loud squawk filled the air. Everybody's heads snapped up to see a massive mechanical bird hovering over them. Wendy had been nervous when Peter was telling her how to operate the Neverbird, but she seemed confident now. She waved pluckily at Captain Hook as she and Tootles peered over one of the machine's huge wings. In that moment, Peter realized that he never wanted to lose her again.
Hook looked astonished to see Wendy, and Peter savored the man's bewildered expression for a moment before grabbing out the miracle knife and slicing easily through their cords. Several rope ladders fell from the bird's underbelly, and the lost boys grabbed onto them as the Neverbird lifted and pulled them all out of reach. Captain Hook ran to the side of the ship as they were carried away.
"No, NO!" He screamed desperately, and Peter wondered why the man was acting so dramatic. After all, it was only a game.