Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Chapter 23: Saving Haddocks


Peter walked outside and closed his eyes intently. He could feel the wave of heat from the ‘bridge’ but that is not what he is looking for. As he walked further into the North Forest, he started feeling small pings of heat. 
Starcatcher lockets, he thought. 
Then he dashed off, following the small heat source. After he dodged a few bushes, he ran into a clearing. In the middle of it was a hole, like a godzilla sized gopher hole. 
Peter slowly looked around, making sure there were no shadows. Then he jumped into the hole. 
He landed on a somewhat curved ground. The walls looked uneven and jagged, like someone chewed this tunnel through. 
Peter concentrated some more and felt the ping of heat once again. He went towards the right caverns and soon enough, he found the cells and the Haddocks. The only problems is that it was flocking with shadows. 
“Elysie, where are Chelsie and Allan’s location?” Peter whispered.
“Not far,” she replied. 
“Direct them to me. I found them.”
Then he slowly backed away and climbed up the hole. 
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After a few minutes, Peter could see Chelsie and Allan slowly walking towards his hiding spot in the rocks. 
“Over here,” he intercoms. 
He looked again and saw them walking towards him. 
“What did you find?” Allan asked.
“A cell area and the Haddocks.”
“How do we get them out?” Chelsie asked. 
“A distraction. I draw the shadows away from here so you guys can come and rescue the Haddocks,” Peter directed. 
They nodded their heads and Chelsie reviewed it to Elysie. 
Before Peter could move, Chelsie grabbed his arm. 
“Be careful. They want you too,” she warned. 
“I know,” Peter replied, his voice shaking with nervousness.
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Peter got out quickly and made his way towards the hole. Then he let out the loudest rooster crow that anyone heard by far. 
If I am going to play Peter Pan, I might as well act like him, he thought. 
“Come and get me, you shadowy scum!” Peter yelled, whipping his arms wide open.
Soon enough, a wave of shadowy figures streamed out of the hole and went straight towards Peter. Then Peter ran as fast as he could, away from the hole. A large cloud of shadows followed closely behind him.
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 Paul perked up when he heard a rooster crow.
A rooster? There are no roosters here, he thought confused. 
Then his dad said, “He’s here. He is really here.”
“Who’s here, daddy?” Asia asked. 
Mr.Haddock looked at them intently in the eyes. 
“Peter Pan.”
They both gasped. 
Then they heard the sound of footsteps, a boy and a girl dressed in some military uniform ran in. Paul instantly recognized the boy.
“Allan! What are you doing here?” Paul asked. 
“Saving your life. What else?” Allan replied. 
The girl easily unlocked the cell with some sort of device.
“Follow closely behind us until he reach our destination. Try to make as little noise as possible,” she whispered. 
“Where are we going?”Asia asked. 
“According to your dad’s notes, Dragon Island is the evacuation protocol. Is that right?”
“Yes, it is. I have a jet that can get us there in no time,” Mr.Haddock said. 
“Is it far?”
“Not really.”
“Okay. Keep up, we are heading out.”
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Peter sadly found himself at a cliff edge. It seemed to be a big drop with a jagged rock shore at the bottom. 
Should have made a bucket list, I’m about to die, he thought.
He turned around and saw the shadows making a half circle formation around him. 
“If you want a fight, I give you a fight.”
Peter pulled out his gun and shot at them. Unfortunately, the bullets passed right through.
You can’t shoot a shadow, a voice said inside his head. 
Then he felt something warm in his jacket pocket. He reached in and pulled out the tip of Curtana. 
“Well, last resort,” he muttered.
He charged at the shadows and started swiping them with the tip. The shadows crumbled into nothing and every time he used the tip, he could feel a course of energy going through him.
When he thought all were gone, he was wrong. 
A bigger mass of shadows surrounded him. He backed up until he couldn’t back up no more.
What to do . . . what to do . . . , he thought nervously. 
Then he looked down.
What if I could fly, he thought.
He looked back up and saw the shadows approaching. 
“Better than nothing.”
Then Peter dove off the cliff. 
The water was getting closer and closer. He almost doubted his ability to fly.
Then he automatically lifted his gaze to the horizon and swooped upward, barely brushing the water. The entire mass of shadows plummeted into the ocean waters. 
Peter let out a breathe of relief as he flew farther away from the cliff. As he started to head towards shore, he lost a lot of altitude. He barely made it to land before he crashed into the waves.
He resurfaced shortly and dragged himself to shore. Completely drained and worn out, he closed his eyes and laid still, enjoying the peace. Until a ear-piercing scream rang out from his ear piece.
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I looked at the monitors, satisfied that the Haddocks arrived safely on Dragon Island. I was amazed at how Peter just flew on the spot. 
Well, now we can go home and get this business behind us.
I was far from right. 
I heard a raspy voice whisper into my ear, “You missed something.”
Then I felt something brush my shoulder and a horrible pain swept through me. I screamed in pain before I lost consciousness.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Chapter 22: The Search


“Go to 12 o’clock,”I directed over a headphone to Melana. 
If you don’t know what’s going on, today is the day that we save the Haddocks. 
Chelsie and Allan were sent out into the north woods to search for them. Thankfully, the computers at the base can sense Other activity. There is a lot of activity in the central areas of the north woods. 
Peter and I are in charge of giving orders at the base, 
“Do you think they are still alive?” Peter asked.
“Positive. The Skeleton doesn’t usually kill his hostages in a short amount of time,”I replied. 
“Doesn’t the family seem kinda . . . strange?”
“Define strange.”
“Like, their heritage. We are long off from any Viking era . . . so why do they have the same last name?”
“I don’t know. Lots of sons.”
“Those are a lot of sons.”
There was a silence when we watched the cams, following Chelsie and Allan. 
“But, where do they get yak milk?” Peter asked.
I looked at him questionably. 
“Well, there are no farm animals at all on this island. Where do they get their food?” Peter inquired. 
“Are you saying . . . ,”I started.
“I am saying that they all weren’t born in this generation.”
There was another silence.
“There is another bridge,”I mumbled.
“What?” Peter asked, confused. 
“A bridge! Mr.Haddock probably knows where the bridge is but doesn’t want the Starcatchers to know.”
“A bridge . . . as in a bridge to a wormhole?’
I nodded. 
“Probably that’s why the Others are here. They know that there is a bridge and want to use it to get back to Neverland,”I concluded.
Peter just nodded uneasily, not sure what to think about the whole Neverland deal.
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Allan followed closely behind Chelsie as Elysie was directing her through the forest. 
“Couldn’t we use the snow bikes?” Allan complained. 
“Yea, and get stuck in all these bushes,” Chelsie spat back. 
Soon enough, they were at their destination. 
It was a cliff. 
“A cliff? You led us to a cliff?” Chelsie said to Elysie.
“Go down. It looks like you are on top,”Elysie said through her earpiece. 
Allan looked down and was the first to know. Luckily, it was just a small sand bank that had veru little ocean water running through. He looked around and saw a big tunnel that has multiple caverns. Before he could say something, Chelsie tackled him into a nearby crevice. 
“What are you doing standing there like a idiot? This place is crawling with Others,”Chelsie said. 
“Sorry, but did you see that cave?” Allan said. 
“Yea,”Chelsie mumbled and then connected to Elysie,”They seem to be in a network of caves under Berk. What should we do?”
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“Caves? You know, they can’t just walk into them and say, ‘Hello, I am just here to free your hostages’. It can be crawling with shadows,”Peter said. Once he said ‘shadows’ he looked shocked. 
“Wait, how did you know there were shadows?” I asked. 
“I  . . . don’t really know.”
Then I remembered that the Peter Pan I knew could trace starstuff. 
“I remember the kids having starstuff lockets . . . do you think you can locate a small starstuff signature?” I asked.
“How do I know?” Peter asked, looking deeply confused. 
“Heat.”
Then I saw realization come to Peter’s face as he remembered the early incident with heat.
“Okay,” Peter said, grabbing his coat and pack. 
“Stay safe and make sure no one sees you. If they find out that you are Peter Pan, it will not end well for you,”I warned. 
Peter nodded and said, “Be back soon.”
Then he connected his earpiece and walked out.