Present Day
Peter sat beside Winter with his leg jiggling with anticipation. He was luckily able to get her to a med station at Grottowia in time, but he still was anxious for her to wake up. Grottowia had some of the best doctors and technicians in the galaxy, but he still wouldn’t ease up until hesaw her eyes open. Tink glided closely by him around the room. “Could you please stop that?” Peter asked softly.
“I’m just as anxious as you, Peter.” Tink stopped flying and hovered by Winter. “Peter, I need to ask you something.”
“What is so pressing that it can’t wait?”
“You know how I always listen to the com link when you go out?”
“What about it?”
“I noticed that when you went after Winter, you yelled Wendy.”
“Did I?” Tink wasn’t sure if Peter was lying or telling the truth. Or perhaps he had simply forgotten.
“I can replay it if you would like,” Tink offered.
“No, no. It must have slipped, similar names you know?” Peter explained avoiding eye contact.
“Are you positive about that?” Luckily for Peter’s sake, Winter started to move. Peter and Tink moved in, waiting for her to awake.
It was difficult to lift her eyelids, but not as difficult as when she hit the mine. She slowly opened them and the dark shadows around her eyes faded as she was able to open them both clearly. She saw a very concerned Peter looking over her. “Mind giving me some breathing room?” she asked as she propped herself up in the bed.
“Shame that your sassiness is still intact. Isn’t Tink?” Peter smirked.
“Oh, shut it.” Winter took a huge breath. “Where am I? And why are these damned lights so bright?” Winter looked around to see the room she was in. It was the whitest white she had ever seen. She noticed there were zero lights around the room and instead, the light was emitted directly from the walls. The walls weren’t painted white as Winter thought, but rather had electricity illuminating the entire spherical room. The room was completely bare except for the machine that she suspected was keeping her alive and the bed and chairs she and Peter were in. There was no door in sight.
“You’re on Grottowia. In one of the medical bays.”
“Can we see the mermaids now?” she quickly asked.
“It appears she’s back to normal,” Tink said.
“And the Krag? What about the Lost Boys?” she quickly remembered.
“They’re fine,” Peter reassured her. “Not long after you plummeted to Grottowia, the Krag retreated. Faster than they’ve ever done, according to Slightly.”
“I don’t get it, why did they come after me? I’m hardly a threat when compared to the Red Men.”
“Or the Lost Boys,” Peter added.
“Most of the Lost Boys,” she correct.
“I think Hook had something to do with it. He was right there near Grottowia. And like Slight said, there’s no reason for the Krag to do anything unless they’re paid for it.”
“You think he paid them to kill me?”
“Or distract me. I don’t know, but I need to find out why he wanted the Lost Boys to come here. And if he succeeded by himself.”
Their conversation was broken when a wall evaporated, opening into a circular walled hallway that was just as illuminated as the medical bay. An orange creature wearing a silver silk like dress came into the doorway. Winter looked at the being that was coming near her. Its skin had an orange hue to it that got much lighter in the face. To compliment the lightly colored face, it had blue dots all over, similar to freckles and had white marks under its eyes, similar to how some humans had dark circles. It had blue tentacles on top of its head that were so long they went down to the creatures behind. Winter couldn’t tell if they were braided together or if that was how they grew in. It blinked its green eyes several times at Winter. “Hello,” she said in a feminine, but stern voice. She had a very slim figure with long skinny arms that matched her legs. She extended her hand warmly to Winter. Winter noticed her three fingers had webs between them. “Welcome to Grottowia,” the creature said to her. Peter jokingly extended his hand to the creature.
“I’m Peter Pan, international space legend. I’m sure you’ve heard of me,” he grinned. The creature rolled her eyes, clearly tired of Peter’s antics. Winter accepted and shook her hand.
Shaking her hand turned into quite the conundrum as Winter’s fingers collided with the creature’s webbed three finger hand. “Oh, sorry,” she said trying to figure out the best method to shake. In a power move, the creature pushed Winter’s fingers together, forcing Winter to give a dead fish handshake.
“Thank you for saving my life. I’m Winter.”
“And I am June,” she said.
“Looks like you two won’t be getting along,” Peter remarked. Both Winter and June exchanged looks of puzzlement. “You know, June is in summer and Winter is…. never mind.” They still both remained silent at the sheer stupidity of Peter’s comment.
“June is typically a month that is in the summertime, depending on what hemisphere you reside and winter is the opposite of the summer,” Tink explained. Peter put his palm to his face at Tink’s explaining. “Peter is stating that because of your names, you should exhibit the same traits of being opposites. I understand it Peter.”
“Thanks, Tink,” Peter muffled out.
“I don’t believe it’s funny either,” she added. Winter laughed at Tink’s comments, but quickly bellowed in pain and grabbed her side.
“Your ribs should be repaired, but they still will have severe bruising for the next few hours.”
“Few hours? I don’t know how much you know about the human anatomy, but I’m going to be feeling this for quite a while.”
“The human or the homo sapien that has been prominent for over 5000 years. Their bodies consist of 206 bones and approximately 79 organs.” She took another breath to continue, but Winter stopped her.
“Gotcha, sorry,” Winter apologized afraid of offending the creature.
“Next time, please never doubt my knowledge of the universe,” she said cunningly. “Yes, as stated before, your bruising should be nonexistent in a few hours. You’re lucky you crash landed onto Grottowia. We have some of the best medical services in the galaxy and if any other race may have operated on you, you may cease to exist.” Peter rolled his eyes at this.
“They’re a very humble race,” he sarcastically explained to Winter.
“Yes, I agree,” June added in. “You should really learn from us, Peter.”
“Not what I meant.”
Using all of her strength, Winter got out of bed, but was stopped when Peter and June rushed over to her. “You really should rest,” June said.
“Winter, what the hell? You were just blown up. Maybe take a breather.”
“Relax, I know my body,” she shooed them away as she escaped from the bed. Winter looked around and re-observed her surroundings, making sure she hadn’t missed anything. “I gotta say, I’m definitely grateful and I’m sure you do have the best technology, but...” she looked around the room again. “This is all just a tad disappointing.”
“Oh, boy,” Peter laughed to himself.
“I don’t understand,” June said.
“Sorry, sorry. It’s just…. you know when your expectations are just so high and nothing would ever be able to meet those expectations?”
“I do not. I always approach my work with exceptionally high expectations and my finished product always exceeds them.”
“Winter, please stop,” Peter said while grinning.
“It’s just I was expecting mermaids and I don’t know. It’s a little disappointing just being in another space ship.”
“Just another space ship? Just another space ship?” June repeated. Her eyes started to have a flicker of red in them until Peter put his arm across her to hold her back.
“Relax,” he said to June. He walked over to one of the bare walls and tapped it. Just as the doorway, it dissolved and created a window to the outside world. However, it was pitch black from Winter’s point of view.
“And what’s this?”
“A window,” Peter said.
“A ‘window’ is a very elementary explanation as to what-” June started to explain.
“It’ a window,” Peter cut in, eyeing June.
“And why make a window when there’s nothing but darkness?” Winter asked as she approached it.
“Our eyes are much more complicated and advanced than a simple human’s,” June illustrated.
“They can see through them and we can’t.” Peter simply explained. “It’s a security feature just in case someone breaks in or something. You have to get really close to see through it.”
“Your vocabulary, Peter, is still quite elementary and childish. You really don’t grow up, do you?” Peter stuck out his tongue mocking her. Winter started to see an illumination far off in the distance. It grew stronger and stronger as she made her way to the window until she was nearly pressed against it.
“Whoa,” she exclaimed. There was an entire city below them illuminated in bright yellow. It consisted entirely of pyramidal structures, with strange symbols etched into the tops of them that were the sources of light in the city. Gigantic sea monsters swam by consisting of bright neon amphibian like skin. Some bearing tentacles, some bearing fins, some bearing both. The plant life amongst the sea was nothing like Winter had ever seen before. They bore neon colors that emitted light, similar to the sea monsters, but were larger than the buildings of the city. A few other Grottowians swam by. Winter noticed their feet were fins. She looked over to June and noticed hers resembled fins, but were quite smaller than the ones currently swimming.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Peter felt a question coming on and as much as he would love to have Winter accidentally make a shrewd remark to the Grottowians, he had to push this along if they were ever going to get back to the task at hand.
“They extend once they hit water. They shrink when on land. Better grip.”
“So, this is where mermaids come from?” Winter is in complete awe.
“I call them sirens,” Peter corrected her. June swiftly hit Peter in the side. “Touch a nerve there?” Peter said playfully.
“This is nothing like the book,” Winter looked over and saw that June seemed offended. “In the greatest way!” she added. June calmed down, very pleased by her comment. “I just wish this was in the book. There’s so much more wonder to it.”
“Our people have a great history. Probably the most interesting out of all beings in the galaxy.” Peter opened his mouth to add a snide remark, but June eyed him and added, “That’s a provable fact.” June went over to Winter and threw her arm around her.
“Do you know what a fact is?” he asked.
“We can survive both on land and sea,” she continued ignoring Peter. “Before any other life could, we built an entire underwater empire for the safety of our people.”
“What happened when they could? Surely there must be someway of surviving underwater. We even have that,”
“There is no being in the universe that would dare challenge our race,” June gave a petty laugh. “Very few have, all regret it.” June released Winter and made her way to the doorway. “Now that you have awakened, I’m afraid I must ask you to leave. No beings other than Grottowians are allowed to stay here longer than needed.”
“Actually, I do have something that came up,” Peter said.
“I’m sure you don’t,” June stated as she left the medical bay. Peter pulled Winter off to the side.
“Try not to piss them off,” he whispered to her. “Gnarly teeth,” Peter said with a shiver. He quickly headed in June’s direction, “I actually do think you’ll be quite interested.” Winter and Tink followed closely bringing them into a circular hallway. The hard silver that encompassed the floor made Winter’s feet cold.
“Nothing you say to me will make me in the slightest way interested in you,” June said as they caught up to her.
“Hmmm not true, but I just want to know if you have any high value items laying around these parts these days?”
“You could not have phrased that in a worse way.”
“Oh, come on! I know you’re always working on something interesting. I think Hook may want it.”
“Peter, everyone in the galaxy wants products we are developing and we will not be persuaded by name dropping. Besides, you know I cannot discuss our matters with likes that are not Grottowian so as far as I’m concerned our conversation has ended.”
“Like you haven’t told me before,” Peter playfully said. June’s jaw and whole body stiffened up more than usual. June stopped and looked Peter dead in the eye.
“That was a mistake and you know it.” June pushed past Peter and continued down the hall.
“I just think he’s trying to steal it. I saw him nearby and he flew off. He asked the Lost Boys help acquiring an asset from this planet. Why would he leave if he didn’t succeed?”
“You can’t expect me to believe some low life pirate broke in here,” June gave a snarky laugh. “Much less stole something from us. No one can penetrate this fortress.”
“We both know you’ve called me a rocket boot wearing man child and we both know that I’ve been here multiple times without anyone knowing. Besides yourself of course.” June stopped and glared at Peter. She balled her fists so tight that she must have broken her own skin and drawn blood. Her eyes started turning to a blood red as multiple sharp tiny fangs came from the roof of her gums over her normal teeth when a blaring alarm sounded. The entire hallway filled with a red flashing light.
“What’s that?” Winter asked. June went cold and lost her breath.
“Someone’s breached our station!” June took off running down the hallway.
“No one can penetrate this fortress, Peter,” Peter mockingly said in a childish tone. “I’m way smarter than you, Peter.” Winter grabbed Peter’s arm and pulled him toward the direction June ran in.
“Well she was correct about the man child part,” she said as they ran down the hall.
“Tink! Go prepare the ship!” he shouted as they left Tink in the hallway.
They entered the security headquarters. It was far more advanced than what Winter saw in the Lost Boys headquarters. The décor matched what Winter saw throughout the rest of the Grottowian station. The biggest difference between the Lost Boys and the Grottowians was that it seemed they didn’t have a physical piece of technology around. There were several Grottowians in chairs throughout the room but none of them had a computer or console in front of them. Instead, there were multiple holographic screens projected in front of the workers with one massive projection encompassing the entire far wall. They typed in the air, on nothing, but the screens reacted as if typing had happened. Winter assumed they all had some type of chip embedded into them similar to Winter being able to see the turret from the firing brig on the Jolly Roger.
June ran to the center and stared at the massive projection. “Where is it! What happened?”
“June! What are you keeping here? I need to know!” Peter said running up to June’s side.
“Quiet!” she growled in a much deeper and darker voice. She stared menacingly at the screen. “Why haven’t you found it?” she barked at the workers. Peter cautiously placed his arm on June’s shoulder and hoped it wouldn’t be the last move he made.
“June, whatever you have, I need to know about it. Hook wants it and we both know he won’t stop until he gets what he wants. I’m sure it’s dangerous and you wouldn’t want Neverland learning that Grottowia misplaced a potential death machine.” June’s eyes started to glow red again, but they quickly diluted back to normal.
“We have been working on a device that can pair universes together.”
“Like make a giant sky hole and combine them?” Winter asked.
“In simplest terms, yes.”
“Ugh, so cliché,” Winter sighed.
“Why would you even think of creating that?” Peter asked more concerned than curious.
“Why wouldn’t we? Don’t you tire of traveling through multiple wormholes? We don’t know what’s out there and with this method it could all be brought together. Think of the technological advantages we could make combining our efforts with others. We could cure anything and be most powerful.”
“Good god,” Peter exclaimed. “I can’t believe I hooked up with Lex Luthor.” Both Winter and June were silent and focusing on projection awaiting results of one of the analysts. “He’s this guy-”
“I know who he is,” Winter said.
“At least someone does.” Peter pondered over a weapon that could combine multiple universes. “Why would Hook want this?”
“Maybe he wants to combine the Milky Way galaxy with Neverland?” Winer offered.
“No, Earth nor any other planet doesn’t have any valuable resources we don’t already have an abundance of here. Plus, that doesn’t explain why he wants me to return to Earth.”
“Keep you out of the way I would imagine. Time is faster there so he could carry out his entire plan without you butting in.”
“Not his style. If he wants to do something to Neverland, he would want an audience to know he bested Peter Pan. How does it work?”
“It’s quite simple really. You must put the device in the universe you’re trying to swallow and then you activate it from the universe you would like to keep the dominant one.” Peter pondered over this, thinking he would have to return to Earth if he wanted to shut off the device. Something Hook wanted Peter to do from the start. That didn’t sit well with Peter.
“I got something!” a nearby Grottowian analyst yelled out.
“Quick!” June shouted. “Make it wide for everyone to see!” The analyst complied and soon his screen replaced the projection on the wall. They were now staring at a small oval room with a device on a pedestal at the center. The device was a simple orb with an electric timer on it.
“That simple gray ball can combine universes?” Winter asked, baffled that something so tiny could cause such destruction.
“It’s not simple! Do you know how much engineering went into this device?” June glared.
“It seems he used a cloaking device,” the analyst butted in.
“Who?” June cried out. They watched the screen and saw the device move up as if grabbed by invisible hands before disappearing completely! “Who did this?” June cried out again when a floating head emerged, staring at the camera. He bore a long scar on his face across his eye. Wearing slicked back hair and oval rimmed glasses, he grinned at the surveillance camera.
“Is that…Smee?” Peter leaned in. His face flashed through Winter’s memory. Something about it was very memorable, but she couldn’t confirm if she knew him.
“I…I think I know that man,” Winter mumbled.
“How?” Peter asked.
“I...I don’t know,” Winter said. She knew she saw him, she just wasn’t sure where. In the recording, Smee looked as if he was mocking Grottowian’s obviously inferior security. He lifted up his hood and vanished.
“How long ago was this?” Peter asked the analyst.
“About two hours ago.”
“That’s around when Hook left. He got what he wanted.” Peter looked to June whose whole body was shaking with tremors. “June?” Peter said as he heedfully approached her.
Peter could see June’s fangs starting to protrude from her mouth. Her whole body shifted from bright orange to a deep red. It was as if a contagion was slowly taking over her body. She turned to Peter and stared at him with now piercing red eyes. Peter tried to give a friendly smile. “June?”
“I’ll kill him!” she belted out in a deep fiendish voice. She lifted her head up and screamed a growl that quickly turned into a shattering siren noise. Peter and Winter quickly guarded their ears out of caution and pain. The Grottowian analysts noticed June’s temper tantrum and were startled out of their chairs. The smart ones left the room as quickly as possible.
“June!” Peter yelled out, but his scream was muted by the growing sound of the siren.
“We’ll break his bones and shatter them to dust! Murder his children, make him watch!” June approached the chairs the Grottowian analysts were sitting on and ripped them off from the floor! She threw them around the room, one hitting an analyst. One brave, but stupid, analyst placed a finger on her in an attempt to calm her down. June quickly spun around and grabbed their finger, breaking it instantly. June took the poor analyst and threw them across room.
Peter knew June was a lost cause now. He looked over and saw Winter cowering in pain. She looked weak and frail. Winter looked to Peter with a look that read, I’m not sure I can last much longer. “Winter! Don’t uncover your ears! I’ll figure something out!” After he spoke his words, he realized how entirely stupid that was.
“What?” Winter yelled in Peter’s direction and uncovered her eyes to try and listen. As soon as her hands uncovered her ears, she began screaming in pain.
“Winter! Try to cover them!” Peter yelled out as a Hail Mary. Soon she would turn, he thought. Her whole body convulsed and then she went still, all pain seemingly stopped. Her pupils went wide and she dropped all emotions in her face. She stood straight up and sulked over to June’s screaming siren.
“June! Stop!” Peter yelled as he rammed Winter over. She fell hard on the floor, but Winter didn’t seem to be in pain. She simply got back up and continued her quest of walking like a zombie toward June. Peter had to think of a plan quick. June would rip Winter to shreds if she got in arm’s reach of her. He noticed blood trickling out of her ear. If June didn’t kill her the siren sound would.
Peter surveyed the room for anything he may be able to use without his hands, trying to come up with a plan as quickly as possible. Multiple Grottowians still engulfed the room, keeping their distance from June. Peter jumped up and activated his rocket boots and flew directly toward a Grottowian. Right before contact, he deactivated his boots and spun around. Using his already fast momentum, he kicked a Grottowian, propelling them directly into June, knocking her to the ground.
June’s skin and eyes returned to normal as her siren sound ended. She blinked several times as if coming out of a trance. Winter exhibited the same physical motions as June. Disarrayed in the mind, unsure of how she got to where she was.
June looked around the room embarrassed and quickly readjusted herself to her calm and poised nature. She took a huge breath and said, “My apologies everyone for-”
“My apologies?” Peter interrupted. “That’s how you’re really going to start this off?” Winter could feel a warm liquid dripping from her ears. She checked them with her fingers and discovered the blood.
“I think siren is an understatement.”
“You little twit!” June snarled as she darted toward Winter, changing yet again.
“Hey!” Peter said pushing June away from Winter. “It’s Smee you’re mad at! Not Winter! Not me! Calm down!”
“You’re right!” she shouted. Her skin started turning as she bellowed, “We’ll kill him with-”
“No! You won’t!” Peter shouted at her, postponing her transformation. “I’m going after him, alright? Calmly and sophisticated. You’re staying here while we go pick up a device that shouldn’t have been made in the first place. Winter, let’s go!” Peter gestured to Winter as he exited the security room.
Peter and Winter marched down the hallway with June trailing not far behind. “Peter, you must stop him from activating the device. A machine with that power, well what we suspect is ultimate power.”
“Suspect?” Peter asked.
“Obviously we don’t know if it will actually work. Our work is all theoretical as of now. We haven’t been able to test anything. And if it’s not ready it could possibly, well I don’t want to speak it into existence.”
“Well for our sake, you better hope it doesn’t work.”
“Peter, just so you understand the gravity of the situation, it could destroy Neverland.”
“Earth too, I guess,” Winter added.
“I could care less about Earth,” June scoffed. Peter skidded to a halt and jumped into June’s face.
“Care less?” He confronted. “Care less!” he shouted. June took a deep breath to ensure she did not lose her temper and could have a mature argument.
“Earth has a futile race not worth-”
“You have no idea what Earth has!” Peter screamed in her face. “How special it is…” Peter almost sobbed out. He clenched his jaw and tightened his face. “No idea, June. No idea,” he said with his finger pointed toward her. Peter stormed away from June. “Winter! Come on!”