We all looked down to see Clair holding a pirate back while a Lost Boy held an injured arm. “Hurting a kid? Have you no shame?”
“Not even a little. Now it’s your turn.”
Suddenly, something happened that I never would’ve expected. The pirate that hurt the lost boy was blasted by a lightning beam…from Mortem’s scythe. I looked at Mortem, and I could see the intense anger on his face, and his heavy breathing. “You…” There was a long pause as darkness started gathering around him. “How dare you!” And all that darkness erupted at once. It was enough to knock me off the mast of the ship, but Peter was able to grab me before I fell into the water.
Looking up, Hook asked, “What is the meaning of this?”
The darkness swirled around Mortem as he growled, glaring furiously. Not good. I couldn’t stop watching my deadly enemy as I hope his unleashing darkness won’t hurt my cousin and…. my new friends as well. “You’d deliberately harm a child!?” Mortem growled as a shadow started appearing behind him. “And you had the gall to claim Pan was the one torturing them?! YOU DIRTY COWARD!” Then that shadow turned into a floating monster. It looked like the upper half of a black skeleton wearing a white torn cloak that was covered in various treasures. It wore a red pirate hat decorated with the Unversed symbol and held a giant golden ax. A pair of red gems were lodged in its eye sockets.
Most of the crew took one look at the Unversed and then abandoned ship. I couldn’t say I blamed them. That must’ve been terrifying for them to look at because they ignored the lifeboats and just dove into the water, while the rest of us couldn’t help but gawk at the sight. “Ye bilge rats! Where are you going? Get back here and fight! He’s on our side!” The captain barked at the crew who had fled the ship.
“Hook!” Mortem shouted. “For crossing the line, you will meet your end at the hand of the Avaricious Wraith!” He then sicked the monster at him, which then proceeded to generate a bunch of ghostly flames.
Hook paled at the sight before him, taking a couple of shaky steps back, then tried to run away. “HELP! SMEE!” The captain yelped out. The Avaricious Wraith, as Mortem called it, then started throwing those ghostly flames at Hook.
My cousin looked at me, unsure of what to do. I don’t blame her. Should we help him? He is a pirate, and his crew was going to try and kill us. Why was this so hard to decide?
“SMEEEE!!!!!” Hook shrieked as he almost got hit by another attack.
As the captain frantically dodged each fireball that came at him, I saw Smee running to a nearby row boat. “Quickly, Captain!” As Hook made his way toward Smee, the Wraith started slowly approaching them with its ax held menacingly in front of it. As I tried to decide what to do, Smee gasped at the sight. “Captain!!” He pointed to the Unversed, making Hook pause to look and shriek at the sight.
“Jason, we have to help,” Jiminy said
I did a double-take. “What?”
“Helping others is right even if they don’t deserve it.”
Sighing, I looked at Hook. “If we fight that thing, you have to swear to leave Neverland and never come back.”
“What?!”
“You heard me unless you want us to let that thing attack you.” I frowned while Peter Pan floated next to me.
“Forget it.” Hook said as he tried to climb into the boat with Smee. However, the Unversed fired an attack that knocked Hook back while the boat was sent into the water with Smee in it. Seeing his chance of escape slipping away, Hook ran to the edge of the ship. However, a ticking noise made him stop. “Not that accursed crocodile!” He panicked as he ran back. When he realized he was heading for the Avaricious Wraith he screamed and hid behind a barrel. “Okay. Old Hooky gives his word. I’ll go away forever. I’ll give you what little treasure I have. I’ll do anything you say!”
At the word of treasure, Scrooge got a greedy look in his eyes. “I’ll take that treasure.”
“Leave, and never come back,” I told him.
“All fair terms. Just save me!” The pirate ordered.
“All right…” Peter looked unsure before a grin appeared. “If you say you’re a codfish.”
“I’m a codfish.”
“Louder!”
“I’m a codfish!” Hook bellowed for all of Neverland to hear.
From where they hid, the Lost Boys began to chant about how Hook was a codfish.
“There, Hook We’ll help.” Peter agreed.
“Now you better keep your word,” I said to him as we turned to face the Avaricious Wraith. As we prepared for battle, we were joined by Tinker Bell and the one called Tiger Lily. I had managed to hear someone call her by name during the battle. “What are you doing?” I asked them.
“Helping.” Tiger Lily said.
“Why are you protecting that scoundrel?” Mortem asked us.
“I’d rather not, but my conscience says that’s the right thing to do,” I told him. “Even if he’s a horrible person…”
“Get ready, Tiger Lily,” Clair said to her.
Mortem paused once again. Seriously, what are we saying that keeps making him think? But then he shook his head and transformed his weapon back to its Keyblade form before pointing it at me. “Then you will share his fate!” Some sort of barrier appeared around the ship as Mortem made the first move. He charged forward, swinging his Keyblade at me, though I managed to block his attack. He then jumped back and started gathering darkness in his palm before throwing Dark Firagas at me. I had to jump to the side to avoid one, then dived down to avoid another before I quickly got back up on my feet. However Scrooge, Clair, and Peter got hit by the attacks, and all of them cried out in pain. Clair fell to her knees but pushed herself back up. She’s gotten tougher than I remember.
Before I could ask if she was all right, Mortem came at me once again. We clashed several times before we locked blades. “You’ve been a disappointment with that Keyblade since we met,” He said. “Now when are you gonna prove that yours isn’t a sham?!” I did not know how I was going to answer that. I did want to beat him, to show him that he was wrong about me. No, it was more than that. For years I had felt I just needed to follow a script on how my life needed to be and more than anything I wanted to prove the writer of that script wrong. I tightened my grip on my Keyblade. And now…
The Avaricious Wraith raised its ax to attack. “No!” Mortem snarled at his creation. “He’s mine!”
As he moved to attack, I then thought I saw an opening. Reacting on instinct, I moved for the opening, and then I just socked him in the face. However, there was a flash of light and suddenly there were metallic gauntlets on my hands! As my attack collided, I couldn’t help but stare at my gauntlets. “What in Gri’s name?”
Mortem was sent crashing into the ship’s mast so hard that it broke in two, and fell onto the Wraith’s head, throwing it off balance. Mortem then looked at me before saying, “What!? Since when could you transform your Keyblade!?”
“Just now.” That was all I could say. It had just… responded. That was the only thing I could think of to describe what had happened.
“I see.” He then charged darkness through his Keyblade. “Well, then let’s see what it can do! Dark Wave!” He launched a great burst of darkness at me.
At first, I didn’t know what to do, but then my gauntlets seemed to act on their own and suddenly clapped together in front of me. A shockwave occurred on impact, which seemed to cause the dark blast to dissipate. My eyes widened at this, as did Mortem’s. “… whoa.” I said after a moment.
“Bless me bagpipes!” Scrooge said. Clair was shocked as well, but she had to avoid an attack from the Avaricious Wraith. She fired off spell after spell while Tiger Lily shot arrows at the Unversed. It then attacked them, forcing them to dodge.
I then heard something I didn’t expect: A chuckle from Mortem. “Perhaps you’re not as weak as I thought.” He then transformed his keyblade into its bazooka form and began shooting dark spheres at me, which I was somehow able to block with my gauntlets. “Yes… That’s it, Jason!” Did he use my name this time? “Give me a fight that’s worth the effort!” He then charged more energy into his Bazooka. “Chaos Cannon!” And he fired a large orb of darkness. This one looked like it was gonna be hard to block.
I then decided to take a gamble and decided to punch the blast head-on with my gauntlets. When my fist collided with it, I struggled to keep it back at first. It took so much strength but I managed to shove it right back at Mortem. Seeing this, Mortem was forced to dodge it. “Yes, that’s it! Give me a challenge!”
He then used his scythe mode again and came at me. I was dodging this attack with reflexes that surprised even myself until I managed to grab hold of his scythe’s staff, and we struggled to push each other away. I could see his grin up close, and I could see that he was enjoying this fight. I honestly wasn’t sure what to make of it. I then punched his gut, sending him back, but kept himself standing. I then dashed at him and began throwing my gauntlet-covered fists at him one after another. He parried a couple of my hits during this. “This is what being a Keyblade bearer is about!” He told me as he deflected some blows. However, I managed to hit him a couple of times.
As for the Avaricious Wraith, I could hear Scrooge saying all sorts of expressions while Peter Pan managed to land a couple of hits on the Unversed with his dagger. Then the treasure attached to the Wraith’s cloak started detaching and floating around it, some forming ring-shaped barriers, and some being thrown at Peter, Tiger Lily, Clair, and Scrooge. Peter managed to avoid them by flying upwards and Scrooge jumped through one to avoid getting hit by the outside. Clair and Tiger Lily also avoided getting injured.
I wanted to go and help them, but Mortem went on the offensive again. Charging up his scythe, he threw the attack at me. Holding my fist up the gauntlet managed to block the attack, though Mortem was able to get a kick in that knocked me back. I grunted as I landed on my back. Looking up, I saw Mortem leaping up to swing at me, so I rolled out of the way just in time. Mortem then pointed his scythe at me and started charging electricity. I was pretty sure he was about to shoot another electric beam at me. I then began to run towards him, trying to get close before he could finish charging his attack.
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