“Got anything?” Jax asked anxiously as he paced back and forth in the galley.
They were on the yacht a few miles from shore along with the other boats and investors’ yachts, a situation that had ramped up their anxiety levels tenfold. Initially, they’d thought fate was on their side, when the Red Skulls searched their yacht and managed to overlook the hidden compartment. But they hadn’t counted on Neverland keeping them this far from shore. So now, as they waited nervously for John to find a spot for Tootles to teleport them into Neverland, Jax worried it may very well be too far away.
Tink had the computer out and was watching John’s hidden camera with Tootles. She pointed to the underground area and he shook his head. It was too dark.
Tink’s censor band went off, and she cupped her hand over her mouth and tried to focus on other locations to teleport, clicking, freezing, and dragging the camera images into a larger focus for Tootles to study.
“No, nothing that has a large enough view. We want to get inside the building, not end up on the beach, and so far, we have an elevator,” Tink mumbled. A few minutes later, she yelled, “Yes!”
Slightly, Ditto, and Michael had gathered together and Tink pointed to what appeared to be a full-fledged city inside Neverland.
“Is that inside the island?” Ditto asked.
“Looks like it,” Tink answered. “That looks like the best place to teleport too, but now we have a problem.” She looked around at everyone and counted heads. “Who’s going to go? Tootles took three of us last time the same distance and it knocked him out. There’s no way he can get us all there. Maybe he could take four, but that’s pushing it.”
Jax had forgotten about that. He looked at Tink’s stubborn face and knew there was an argument waiting to happen. Dr. Mee, Dr. Barrie, Slightly, Ditto, Tink, Michael, and him included made seven. Over half of them would have to stay back.
“Okay, Tootles will take me, Ditto, and Slightly,” Jax announced.
“No way,” Tink argued. “I want to go. John is there and I won’t leave him. He is going to get into all sorts of trouble if I’m not there.”
“No, Tink,” Jax ordered. “You will stay here with your father. You just got each other back, don’t waste it.” Tink opened her mouth but promptly closed it.
“I’m going.” Michael got up and stood next to Tootles. “Someone needs to take down Neverland’s security system and I can do that.” He pointed to his head. “But I need to be closer. I can’t do it from here.”
Jax had to rethink his strategy now. Michael had a point—he would prove to be an asset if they had to crash the system. “Okay, Slightly, Michael, and I. That’s final.”
A quiet look passed between Ditto and Slightly, and Jax almost missed it. Tootles came over and grabbed hands with Jax and Michael. Slightly pretended to lean forward and reach for Tootles’ shoulder, but at the last minute, Ditto replaced him.
In a flash they were inside the city, a few blocks from Wonderland Games. Tootles had teleported them to the spot Tink had targeted with a screen capture. A loud tone echoed through the air and a wailing scream followed. Tootles shrieked and cowered in fear, and Michael pulled the boy into a doorway of a hair salon.
“What was that?” Tootles asked, his breathing ragged, as his head fell back on Michael’s shoulder and he passed out.
“Well, at least he got us here,” Ditto said and helped prop Tootles up against the door, brushing the boy’s hair to the side.
“What are you doing here, Ditto?” Jax growled. “You’re injured. I told you to stay put.”
“Slightly and I had already discussed this outcome. We knew Tootles couldn’t teleport us all, and he agreed that I should be the one to come,” Ditto answered.
Jax didn’t have time to argue as a morphling crawled out of the sewer and ran across the road to them, its long tentacle arms waving threateningly in the air.
Maintaining eye contact with Ditto, Jax raised one arm and blasted the morphling with a fireball into air, across the street and through a building, where it decimated into a pile of ash.
“Now is not the time to test my patience, Ditto,” Jax growled out.
Ditto’s mouth fell open and he did a double take between the ash and Jax’s hand still engulfed in flames. “Yes, sir, I mean no, I . . . just want to make up for my stupidity in the woods.”
“This is war, not the time to make amends. You want to prove to me you’re capable of fighting? Protect Tootles,” Jax snapped. He needed to find the others.
“But I know this place,” Ditto insisted. “It’s just like Hollow City in the games, I’m almost sure of it. And Slightly and I agreed, if this is anything like the game, I’m your best chance at survival.” He jogged into the street and looked down the road. “Like down Woodland Avenue is a rest station.” He turned and pointed the other way. “Two blocks over is the Workman’s Guns and Ammo shop.” He grinned cheekily at Jax. “Now who’s mad I came?”
Jax shook his head. “Well, get to it. Take care of Tootles and Michael. I will meet you over there in a bit.”
Ditto split into two. One picked up Tootles and headed to the nearest bench, Michael following behind him; the other gave Jax a salute and headed toward the gun shop. Jax watched them go, his eyes taking in the Clip N Go Salon.
He hadn’t said anything to the others when he’d watched John interact with the other investors. He had recognized Helix and Hook and didn’t want to alarm them. He knew they were a few blocks away, laughing, eating and playing the game in their impregnable building. Just they wait until he brought the building down around them.
But first, he needed to find the lost boys.
“What is this appearing on my visor?” Craft asked. “I keep getting messages and prompts for ammo and supplies—should I follow it?”
Peter had only received one or two prompts, but he was too busy searching for Wendy to notice what they said, or any of their instructions. “Yes, take two others with you, though. The morphlings keep increasing in numbers, and we’ll need more than our powers to take them down.”
He was angry that he hadn’t found Wendy, and was preparing to lead a group of the boys back to the main square to find her. His boys had been training for years to fight the Red Skulls and the morphlings. These girls, however, had spent the last seven years in stasis and likely had never even thrown a punch. They were hardly prepared to take on well-trained Red Skulls and deadly morphlings. He owed it to them to protect them as well as his own, but having this many of them in one area kept drawing the morphlings to them as well.
“Incoming!” Nibs yelled as a morphling crawled down the side of a three story building and leapt toward Jade. Onyx jumped in front of her placing himself in the line of fire, his eyes flashing and trapping the morphling in his deadly gaze, turning it into black stone. Glistening as it fell, the morphling cracked and shattered into pieces.
“That was impressive.” Jade tucked her hair behind her ear. “But I didn’t need your help.” A second morphling was coming down following the first. Jade’s eyes turned dark, her hands lifted into the air, and vines shot up from the ground, wrapping themselves around the morphling over and over until the dark mass was covered with green.
Jade’s lips curled up, her teeth bared, as she controlled the living vines until the morphling couldn’t move anymore and was mummified.
“Very nice.” Onyx high-fived her.
Curly rolled his eyes. “Stop it, you two.”
“Behind you!” Peter called out as a large morphling with horns like a bull ambushed them from a blind alley, steering right down the middle of their group.
They scattered, trying to dive behind cars and buildings as the morphling bowled right into the side of a car, denting the door and setting off the car alarm.
It turned again and seemed to be considering its next target, pausing as it eyed the largest gathering of their group. Then it scraped the ground with its shadowy hoof like a real bull and charged. Surprised by the speed and aggressiveness of the bull, their group splintered. Four more bull morphlings appeared and banded together to charge at a group trying to stand their ground, causing mass chaos and confusion as one of the boys was gored by the morphling horn in the leg and tossed across the street to land on the hood of a car. Whenever anyone stopped to fight, they were immediately run down, making defense impossible, leaving them no choice but to run, until they were all racing, running to distance themselves from the herd of monstrous bulls.
Explosions and flying debris littered the street as they fought for their lives.
“Move!” Peter commanded. “Keep moving!”
Craft returned, leaping over a fire hydrant with a bag of weapons, as he ran alongside them. Not enough, though, and the few guns they had were nothing like the light brace he was used too.
“Curly, report,” Peter called, and Curly came running up, sporting a bruise on his cheek, his lip bleeding. “It’s bad, Peter. We’re cut off from the others. I saw one group run north. Dillinger went south and we’re east.”
“They drove right through us on purpose,” Peter said dismayed. “They thinned the herd, hoping to pick us off one by one instead of attacking all at once.”
“Who knew morphlings could be so smart?” Onyx grumbled. “They weren’t this sophisticated when we fought them before.”
“Everything’s different,” Peter said.
A close roar took Peter’s group by surprise. They spun around, and once again, they faced another morphling bull. It opened its mouth, and an otherworldly scream erupted from between its gaping jaws.
“Onyx, can you take him?”
“Not when he’s moving, Peter. His eyes are on the side. I can’t maintain eye contact.”
“Craft?” Peter called over his shoulder, not needing to look.
Craft held out his arm, and a metal spear appeared out of his hand, crafted from thin air. The boy was a metallurgist and could create any form of metal object.
“On it, Peter.” Craft stood boldly in the middle of the street, gripping his spear much like a matador. “Although, I’ve only ever seen this done in movies,” he joked, laughing nervously, clearly uneasy facing down a bull of this size.
The bull bowed and gave Craft a hard stare, then charged. Craft ran to meet it, pulling his arm back to launch the spear, and let it fly, then rolled to the right, and missed being trampled to death by mere inches. The spear jabbed the morphling, but it only enraged the beast further. It grew in size, and additional horns appeared out of his massive head, and from its back end developed two spiked tails.
“What in the world?” Craft said in awe. He thrust his hands out and two more spears appeared—one for each head—but he was tired, and limping.
“Craft, don’t,” Peter called, changing his mind. Trying to call his boy back.
“Run, Peter, get the girls out of here,” Craft yelled, waving his arms to get the bull’s attention again. “I’ll draw him off.”
The bull charged again and Craft launched another spear, but it missed. The second spear, he held tight and was going to drive it into the bull’s neck, but Peter knew he would be trampled. He took off flying toward the boy, but a ball of fire beat him.
Screams of pain erupted from the bull’s mouth as another fireball followed the first. They burned so hot the flames were white, and then there was nothing but a pile of ash.
“I knew I couldn’t leave you alone,” Jax said smugly, making his way to Peter, he clapped him on the shoulder.
“What? No. You were just scared I would take out all of the morphlings myself and forget to leave you any,” Peter joked.
Jax’s smile disappeared as he glanced from face to face. “Where is she? Where’s Wendy?”
“I lost her,” Peter sighed.
“Again?” Jax turned and looked for her, not seeing her among the small group. “Don’t worry, you’ll find her. She always comes back to you.”
“How did you get here?” Peter asked, and grinned when Ditto came running over to them, carrying a sleeping Tootles, Michael right on his heels.
“Same way you did. Boat.” Jax counted, his lips moving, and his frowned deepened. “Where are the others? There should be more of the boys.”
“We were separated,” Peter answered.
Jax’s jaw clenched. “Looks like you really need your second in command.”
“I’ve never said otherwise,” Peter admitted.
“Where did you get those cool helmets and uniforms? Can I get one?” Ditto asked, handing Tootles over to Jake, another of the lost boys. “They’re just like my character wears in the video game.” He kept running his hand over Onyx’s helmet and even flipped up the visor to scope out the make and model.
“It is just like the game. Even the screen controls are the same.”
“We’re in a game,” Peter said. “Although, not one I’ve played much.”
“Don’t worry, I have.” Ditto grinned.
Screaming caught them off guard, and Peter whipped around—Ash had fallen to the ground and was being dragged by a morphling toward the sewers, its jaws clamped around her leg.
“Help me!” Ash cried out. Curly was the first to her side, reaching out and grasping the morphling’s head as he tried to control the beast’s thoughts, but nothing came of it. It didn’t work. Then Craft slammed the spear into the morphling’s skull. It squealed in pain and retreated into the sewer.
“Peter, she’s been bitten!” Jade cried as she helped Ash to her feet. Her leg was bleeding profusely and covered in inky black poison. They needed the cure, but where in the city were they going to find the antidote?
“Craft, help carry her. We need to find a hospital.”
“No, you need to find a medical storage locker. It will have the antidote. Or at least it does in the game,” Ditto corrected, tapping Peter’s head. “Use the visor.”
Peter, feeling dumb for ignoring it for so long, finally paid attention to his visor. Pulling down the map, he discovered the city drawn out in gold lines and was easily able to find his own location. An envelope pinged in the corner of his visor, and he saw it was a message. A glance with his eyes centered the message on his visor.
Medical storage locker on right.
Peter turned and sought out the corner grocery store that matched the description. It was so close. Craft was right behind him carrying Ash. Everyone else had spread out in a circle to watch his back.
He hurried over to it and with a swift kick, he broke into the grocery, and in the front by the register sat the red and white lockers. How in the world did the game know? He ran to the locker and tried to open it, but it was locked with a digital keypad and sensor box.
“It won’t open,” he grunted and punched the locker.
“Does anyone have any credits?” Ditto asked. “Check your upper left treasure box.”
Silence ensued as the group searched for the correct icon in their visors.
“No,” Jade groaned.
“Nope,” Craft added with a sigh.
“I do,” Onyx breathed out and ran to place his palm on the pad. A buzzer sounded and it opened, revealing two gold vials and injector tube. He loaded the injector and handed it to Jade, who immediately administered the dose to Ash.
“Ditto,” Peter laughed. “I will never make fun of you for playing video games again.”
“I’ll hold you to it,” Ditto said, grinning. “But really, this is so cool. We’re living and breathing Hollow City in Warfare Infinity.” Unable to contain his glee, Ditto kept jumping up and down, and went back out to the street to explore the block. “This is where I took down General Hag in Warfare 8.” He pressed his hands to his head and spun with excitement. “This is amazing.”
The group came and joined him on the street.
“Ditto,” Peter called out repeatedly until he settled down.
“Sorry, Peter.” Ditto was shoving his hands into his pockets to try and tame his enthusiasm when his doppelganger appeared pushing a shopping cart full of weapons. Guns, machetes, and knives—he had hauled a full arsenal.
“The cavalry has arrived,” both Dittos said at the same time, something that happened whenever they were within hearing range of each other. The Dittos began to hand out the weapons freely.
“Good job.” Peter turned to Jax. “We need to find the others, our boys and the kidnapped girls and get them out of here fast. Then we burn this place to the ground for good.”
Jax wouldn’t meet his gaze. He seemed distracted and asked, “What about you?”
“I’m going to find Wendy and then Hook. This ends today.” Movement in the upper corner of his visor gave Peter pause. “Oh no,” Peter muttered. “Look at the map. Do you see what I see?”
“What is it?” Curly asked, and Peter waited for him to see the same thing he did. He let out a slow whistle. “We’re going to need reinforcements.”
Each of them were marked as gold triangles on the map, and a small mass of purple dots surrounded them from all sides. He could only assume that the purple dots were the enemy.
“Prepare for incoming!” Peter yelled as a morphling crashed through the window of a shop and rolled into the street. A scorpion-like tail swung out and stabbed Jake in the leg. More came up from under the river’s bridge and stalked them. Peter took an unclaimed short sword from the shopping cart and took to the air. Landing on the back of the beast, he shoved his blade into the back of its neck. Dark poisonous blood oozed out, and Peter took off into the air before it could touch his skin.
A stream of morphlings ran past Peter followed by a flurry of activity with bodies moving and fighting, everything blurring in the chaos, as the lost boys dispatched morphlings left and right. But for everyone they killed, two more took its place.
Two Dusters in black uniforms came around the corner. One stopped and a pickup truck flew through the air, pinning a morphling against a building. It moved once and then died. The second duster, in a stream of black lightning had cut down three morphlings.
When the wave of morphlings was either incapacitated or dead, Peter looked at the two Dusters who had come to their aid.
“Wu Zan? Leroy?” Peter called out in disbelief when he saw his friends.
Both of the Dusters gave each other a high five and then jogged over to him.
“We pinged your location and saw that you needed some help, newby.”
“Wu Zan?” Jax came over and both of Peter’s roommates saluted their commander. “You know each other?” Jax asked in disbelief. “They were part of my team.”
Peter couldn’t contain his grin, placing his hands on his hips. “Well, now they’re part of my team.”
“Boys, boys,” Wu Zan teased. “There’s plenty of me to go around . . . for the right price.”
“Zan,” Leroy warned softly.
“I’m teasing,” Wu Zan said. “Can’t you see that? We came, didn’t we? We’re here, because we don’t leave our teammates behind.” He turned and held his hands up. “I can’t help it if my owner is paying me tons of credits for every morphling I bag.”
“Craft, get Jake the second vial of antivenom,” Peter commanded, pointing to his injured boy. That was it. They were now out of antivenom and would have to find more.
As they continued to move toward the main square, Wu Zan and Leroy quickly filled in Peter and Jax on what they knew and had learned about the Hollow Dome and Warfare Infinity. The Dusters were given more information than Peter’s crew.
“I’ve even been given an upgrade.” Wu Zan held up an empty injector pen. “Picked it up at the last locker station. I could get used to this kind of treatment.” He rubbed his knuckles on his shirt. “Who knew that all those video training simulations would lead to this?”
Gamers purchased half of the kids here already and those that hadn’t would be in the next few weeks. A gamer named Killz purchased craft and Wu Zan. Leroy was owned by Diego.
Peter frowned when he saw his owner was Helix.
“How do we end the game?” Peter asked.
“You don’t,” Wu Zan’s said, the confident smile falling from his face. “From what I can tell, Infinity is the updated version of Warfare 8. They’re very similar games but not when it comes to the length of gameplay, which for Infinity . . . you can look to its title for a clue. Unlike Warfare 8 that only had an hour timeline, this game never ends.”
“No, there has to be a way out.”
“We haven’t found one yet,” Leroy said. “The best thing to do right now is to find a base and set up defenses. Then we will send out teams to bring back food and weapons.”
Peter shook his head. “Sorry, guys, I don’t plan on being here that long. We’re going to bust out of here.”
Wu Zan’s eyes dropped and he looked over at Leroy. Both of them shifted uncomfortably. He was missing something.
“What’s wrong?” Peter asked.
“Don’t you understand? We can’t leave. We need a continual supply of the PX injections or we burn out and die.” Wu Zan was becoming upset and paced back and forth.
There it was, the final piece. It made sense now, why so many of the Dusters never tried to leave, even the decent, peace-loving ones like Wu Zan and Leroy. They didn’t choose to stay—they had to stay, and wouldn’t dare leave. They chose to train and fight for a chance at survival, because the alternative was certain death. The signs were all there—he just hadn’t seen it.
This is how Neverland controlled their kidnapped victims and turned them willingly into supernatural combat soldiers. They had been experimenting with time-delay drugs for years, and apparently it had paid off. The only wrench in their grand plan was the loss of so many originals, who didn’t need the constant supply of PX injections to survive.
“We’ve lost too many friends who tried to quit taking the drug, or escape Neverland and they died. I didn’t want that for you. We didn’t know this is where we would all end up, but since we’re together. Why not go out like champions?” Wu Zan explained.
“I understand,” Peter said. And he did. “But it doesn’t mean I’m not going to try and find a way to stop Neverland and save you.”
Both boys nodded and Jax quickly looked away, refusing to meet his gaze.
That’s when it hit him. Jax knew that if they destroyed Neverland, it meant destroying all of the Dusters with it. Anger rushed through him and his hands curled into fists. He wanted to hit Jax. No, beat him to a pulp like they did whenever they had a dispute.
“You knew, Jax.” Peter felt betrayed. “You knew the whole time that they couldn’t leave.” He pushed Jax in the shoulders, trying to provoke him into a fight, needing a way to vent his anger at the situation, at losing Wendy, at losing his friends.
“I knew,” Jax said softly. “There was nothing I could do.”
“You know how I feel about leaving people behind, and yet you said nothing,” Peter growled, shoving Jax again. “What were you going to do, just leave them? Not tell me?”
Jax finally snapped and shoved Peter back, but he didn’t fall, instead floating in the air. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead, okay?” Jax yelled, waving his hands. “I’m making this up as I go.”
“We’ll help you,” Leroy said, stepping between Peter and Jax, his large body tantamount to a wall, and Peter had to drop his fist or risk punching Leroy in the mouth.
“To escape, I mean. Tell us what you want us to do and we’ll do it.” He tapped his visor camera, warning, “But don’t forget, they’re always watching us.”
The reminder was a wakeup call for Peter, and he let himself sink back to the ground, running his hands through his hair. He paced, hands on his head, then over his mouth. Each round of pacing, his posture and mood changed as he contemplated their situation. Then he froze when he saw Michael sitting on a curb, staring up at him through his goggles. Peter snapped his fingers and knew what they had to do.
Peter pointed to the cameras and gave a signal to Michael and the boy lit up and nodded. He closed his eyes, scrunched up his face. A few seconds later, the visors blinked and turned off as well as the suit cameras. “We good?” Peter asked and waited for a signal.
Michael gave a thumbs-up. “Were good, but not for long or they will suspect something. I also can’t take out all of the cameras.”
“How long?” Peter asked.
“I can probably give you five minutes,” Michael answered.
“Okay, when I give the signal, take out the cameras. But we need to find the headquarters.”
“I can take you to it,” Jax interrupted. “John’s in there now. We teleported a few blocks from the building.”
“Great, we attack that building, get in, grab Helix and Hook and force them to let us out. If they’re in that building inside the Hollow Dome, then there must be an exit.”
“That building will be heavily secured,” Wu Zan cautioned.
“And you can bet that once they figure out what we’re doing, they’re going to send every single morphling after us. Not to mention the other Dusters,” Jax said.
“Leave the other Dusters to us.” Leroy touched his fist to his chest in a salute.
“Then we need to find a way to stop the morphlings first. There has to be a way that Neverland is controlling them,” Peter said.
Jax stepped back from the group and Peter noticed. “Jax, what is it?”
He frowned. “There is. It’s a girl, Peter.”
“A girl,” he asked, confused, but there wasn’t time for explanations. “Can you stop her?”
He shook his head. “She’s not awake. She’s dreaming, trapped inside of a pod.”
“Then wake her up, Jax,” Peter ordered.
Jax’s stiffened. “I can’t. She’ll die.”
Peter flinched. “Jax, we may all die. You have to take that chance. You weren’t there, when we lost Torque and Rash, but isn’t it better to die free than to die enslaved?”
“No, Peter,” Jax said tightly, his eye twitching, his hands curling into fists. “Not all of us die.” Jax turned and stalked off.
“Jax, wait!” Peter called, but when he tried to follow him, a circle of flames erupted around Peter trapping him in a cone of fire. When the flames died down, he flew out of them to confront Jax.
“You have an order!” Peter growled out, knocking Jax down to the ground, holding him by the front of his shirt.
“Yeah, well, you know me,” Jax challenged. “I’m not great at following orders.”
“You’re choosing her over us?” Peter asked quietly so that only the two of them could hear. “One life over all of ours?”
All the tension left Jax’s body, and he went slack in Peter’s arms. His face contorted to one of pain and longing.
“Yes, Peter.” Jax’s head dropped back to the cement. “And you would do the same for Wendy.”
Jax’s dilemma became Peter’s, as it mirrored his own predicament. He was trying to save her at the peril of his boys, and Jax was disobeying an order for the same reason.
Peter huffed with frustration then he shoved Jax back to the ground and stood up to address the group. He had to lead by example. Save the boys, then save Wendy.
Pain exploded in Peter’s chest, and he looked down at the splash of red across his uniform. Blood seeped through and spread out, covering his palm. His body was going numb, cold. Peter scanned the rooftops, and spotted the shooter on top of an apartment building over a block, the rifle in his hands as he stood up and waved cheerily at him.
“Hook.” Peter gurgled blood and collapsed to his knees.
“No,” Jax cried out, grabbing Peter, before he fell face-first to the cement. His breathing became shallow and then stopped altogether. The lost boys cried out rushed for cover. Ditto tried to come to Peter’s aide but was stopped by Jax.
Jax held his friend in his arms and bright flames erupted around the two friends, but neither one of them burned in the fiery inferno. He swung his head around to the apartment roof where he last saw Hook, and he knew it was time to end it.
Jax left Peter’s body where it lay. Walking slowly and with purpose, he headed toward Hook. He knew that when he was done, only one of them would be left standing.