The Battle for the Neverwoods:
(1911 A.D., The Ashen Nevertree, The Neverwood Scorch, The Neverlands, the Realm of Ishrakie)
Under Peadar's watchful eye and the coordination efforts of both the Neverwood Fairies and the Neverbirds, the complete and efficient evacuation of all civilians, forces and supplies by all the peoples of the Neverwoods to the White-Caverns is carried out smoothly. King Clexxy Wigglesten of the White-Cavern gnomes, while deeply nervous to aid and help the Ten Nation Resistance against Hook at first, ultimately does agree to provide sanctuary since he and his people had long since abandoned their cavern kingdom to aid the Wizard of the Emerald City in the boosting of Oz's defences.
Hook's raging wildfires burned through the Neverwoods for days, turning the once idyllic paradise of flora and fauna beyond imagination into a vast endless sea of smouldering embers, ashes and charred ruins. The hellish choking smoke and ash from the fires blackened and scorched the sky with darkness and dry lightning. The senseless environmental destruction boils the blood of the Neverwood Natives who had called the Neverwoods home for millennia and leaves thousands of indigenous species of wildlife without a habitat and thus threatened.
Once the fire has done its work, Hook uses the power of the tower to bring the rains and winds to clear the debris from the Neverwoods remains and then the sun to dry up the wet soil to make the land easy to move troops over.
His forces and the land ready for travel, Hook proceeds with his plan by leading an army of 490,000 of our Brethren-Troops and 20,000 Wonderlandian Cardmen across the vast ashen waste to kill or capture any survivors they find. He and his ground forces are supported by a combined air-fleet made from four of Hook's new Bombardier Air-Ship Armadas controlled by Air-Marshal Heinrick of the Air-Ship; the Merigold-Lion and Air-Marshal Ashcroft of the Air-Ship; the Storm-Rose. With little resistance and mostly flat smooth terrain all the way to their destination, Hook's dark forces make swift progress towards the towering blacked vestige of the Nevertree at the heart of the Neverwoods. They stop and make camp just two days travel away from the monolithic tree. At this camp Hook, in meeting with his commanders, reveals his plan for the coming battle, the battle where the fate of all the Neverlands will be decided.
*****
"Our spies embedded with the Mermaids tell us that the Ten Nations Resistance currently has around 900,000 Neverwood Natives led by Chief Great Big Little Panther marching to meet us at the remnants of the Nevertree. Apparently, 1,000,000 Neverbirds lead by some pseudo-god wench named Queen Amatsu will be providing them Air-Support, but never fear, I have a surprise already prepared for them. I want our air-armadas to hold back and cover the ground force's rear flanks to protect us from any potential rear ambush until I deal with the Neverbirds but the very moment they're gone, I want our Air-Forces to rush forward and unleash hell on the enemy front and mid-lines."
"Aye Aye, Captain," Air-Marshals Ashcroft and Heinrick declare in unison.
"Once our shock and awe bombardment of their front and centre causes them to break ranks and scatter in confusion, I want our Teslic-Troopers to push in hard with the rest of our forces flowing in behind them. After all, we may be outnumbered but our weapons are far advanced and that should help us more than make up the difference," Hook continues.
"Agreed," Smee replies, nodding.
*****
"BEHOLD! ENEMY DRAWS NEAR! WAS HOPING FOR MORE!" Little Panther proclaims, gesturing to the massive horde of Hook's forces approaching the battlefield on the opposite side of the Nevertree's towering remains.
"Yes, well, they may be small in number compared to us, great chief, but not in power. Do not underestimate them. This will be the fight of our lives," Sir Teddels replies, staring out at the approaching enemy army with stern contemplation.
"Then will be most glorious battle ever. Our people strong. Our people ready," Little Panther answers back firmly, beating his chest once in challenge to the enemy.
"Having a bad feeling about this my friend?" Sir Teddels asks with a friendly yet prodding smirk to his green-garbed friend standing next to him.
"Death comes for us all, little one, and today is a good day to meet it… Preferably covered in the blood of our slain enemies," Sir Alias answers back, starting seriously but ending in amused chuckling.
"There is no better way to die than in the company of friends standing against evil," Little Panther chimes in with a respectful nod to his compatriots.
"Well, you two can have fun with the honourable death thing. I'm planning on surviving," Sir Teddels laughs back in a tone that is both determined yet playful as he draws his blade and hops onto Sir Alias's shoulder, nodding for Little Panther to signal the men to 'ready for the charge'.
"Perfect sunset for a bloodbath. Eh, Noodler?" Hook jokes, looking from the beautiful scarlet Neverlandian sunset to the enemy front lines standing opposite them on the other side of the soon-to-be battlefield.
"Oh, yes gonna kill the loads of 'em, yes we will, yes we will," Noodler giggles back maniacally.
"The warmth of their blood on my skin and the look in their eyes as they die will fuel my pleasure with the girls tonight when we celebrate our victory," Murphy proclaims to his two crewmates in a deep imposing voice and wicked grin of bloodthirsty anticipation.
"Say, Captain, that green-garbed fellow there, isn't that our old crewmate Adrian Wainscot?" Smee asks, pointing at Sir Alias.
"Why yes, I do believe it is our old cabin boy. So he became the Phantom of the Neverwoods after killing our old Captain Pescaro. Exile seems to have treated him very well, he's grown up to be quite handsome. Spared his life the last time I saw him… Shame I'll have to deny him that courtesy this time," Hook replies nostalgically. A sinister chill washes over the battlefield as each side make their final preparations.
"Yes, perfect… Right on time," Hook grins as the Neverbirds arrive by the millions filling the sky on the opposite side of the battlefield.
"I hope you all were planning on having roasted birds for supper," Hook snarls, amused as he closes his eyes and focuses on his tower and the Neverbirds.
"Let's start this battle with a bang," Hook growls sadistically as he opens his eyes while thrusting his hand into the air toward the Neverbirds. The whole sky is suddenly consumed in an explosive rippling wave of hellfire setting the whole sky ablaze and instantly frying every last Neverbird. Hook bellows with cruel laughter, gesturing for his troops to begin to advance as the burning corpses of the Neverbirds rain from the sky.
A great number of the resistance soldiers cower and flee in fear and awe. Hook's show power, sending daggers of fear through their hearts. Sir Alias and Little Panther try to quell the fear and call the ranks back to form, but as the horizon-wide inferno fades and the scorched remains of the Neverbirds fall, Hook orders his air-ships to surge forward and rain death and destruction upon the ground, turning the resistance side of the battlefield to a hellscape of screaming, death, ash, dust and craters.
By the end of the bombardment volley, thousands of soldiers lie dead, their blood and viscera littering the crowd like a field of crimson gore. Thousands more flee in terror as Sir Teddels and Little Panther call to fight the soldiers brave enough to remain, ordering them to charge forward and attack through the chaos. As the airships begin to reload, Sir Alias seizes the opportunity to score a moral and tactical win for the resistance and sets his sights on the Air-Ships.
Using a combination of superhuman agility and speed, he leaps and scurries up the massive towering charred megalith of the now-dead Nevertree until he is higher than the Air-Ships.
Hook smiles gleefully, seeing the enemy scattered, terrified and confused before he even had to order the charge, just as he had intended.
"About that time eh lads?" Hook muses to Noodler, Murphy and Smee who all guffaw and grin in agreement as Hook finally orders his land forces to push forward and exterminate the disorientated and now basically defenceless resistance fighters.
Pulling deep from within his soul, he drags forth the deep reservoir of arcane power and sheer will built up over decades of training and practised focus and then in a mighty booming voice he makes his willful intent real… dominant over matter and space.
"TESLIAS RIPPLIOS VER SHATTRA NI!!!!!!" Sir Alias thunders, leaping into the black storming sky of thick toxic dust and debris as the air around him crackles. The heavens rage and the gods bellow as jagged plasmatic bolts of pure lightning jut from the sky, coating his body and weapon in shimmering blue lightning above the Air-Ships. Sir Alias trusts forth his hands towards the Air-Ships, unleashing surging through him causing a massive condensed beam of consistently flowing thermal destruction from his hands. All hell breaks loose as he uses the powerful beam to slice every last Air-Ship, sending their flaming wrecks crashing down onto the battle raging below.
"Mercy once given, extended no more!" Hook snarls, summoning from the cosmic ether of the Neverlands an alien-looking glowing crystallin rifle. He takes aim. The rifle erupts with a reality-shattering crack, loud as the rage of God, unleashing a cataclysmic bolt of umbral black lightning. The bolt of energy shreds through the air towards the unexpecting Sir Alias, blasting through the back of his head and exploding it into a gruesome cloud of red mist.
Sir Teddels cries out in fury and loss as he watches his best friend's headless body fall to the ground with a hard wet splat. His screams lose themselves in the apocalyptic cacophony of exploding artillery, clashing steel, pounding drums and the war cries of the hellish bloodbath of a battle raging all around him as he dashes and leaps, swerves this way and that, barely avoiding incoming enemy attacks and wayward strikes until he finally makes it to the side of his now headless beloved.
"Oh, noble woodland defender of creatures great and small, my truest companion, my most loyal friend… my dearest love," Sir Teddels laments gently, placing a kiss on Sir Alias's chest, his tears soaking his beloved's bloodied body.
"HOLD LINE! HOLD!" Little Panther bellows to his remaining Braves as they do their best to hold the line while Hook's Teslic-Troopers begin their brutal push on their position. Scorching beams of condensed lighting erupt from the weapons dazzling, burning and, in some cases, even incinerating Little Panther's remaining front-line forces. His fearless warriors do their best to return fire with their far more primitive weapons, but the armour of Hook's soldiers is too strong and the sheer technological might of the Hook's forces is simply too much. The Teslic Troopers claim hundreds of brave men and women's lives with each step of their advance and each volley from their devastating weapons.
Spotting the tearful warrior teddy weeping over the body of Sir Alias, Noodler starts firing off rounds. Sir Teddels grief turns to rage as he dodges the incoming rounds and rushes towards Hook, but Noodler and Murphy move to intercept. Noodler fires off shot after shot to stop the quickly approaching teddy-bear knight but he is too small and too fast for Noodler to hit. Murphy tries to flank Sir Teddels from the side with a running tackle, but Sir Teddels slides under and then leaps into the air countering the charging brute of a man by coming down hard on Murphy's back and stabbing his sword straight through Murphy's neck. Burying his blade deep into the back of his foe's throat. Sir Teddels pushes deeper, twisting and sliding the blade back and forth and nearly decapitating his now-dead enemy. Murphy's body falls heavily into a pool of his own blood as Sir Teddels turns his attention to Noodler.
"MURPHY! YOU FUCKIN FLUFFIN BASTARD!" Noodler screams, switching to his pistol rather than his rifle just as the living-toy-turned warrior leaps into the air at him lunging his tiny blade deep into Noodler's jugular. Smee in his frantic struggle, manages to unload one round at point-blank range right into the bear's chest, sending the bear flying off him. But the damage is done. Noodler stumbles backward and then falls as he bleeds his life into the ashen earth beneath him. Sir Teddels falls to the ground spewing white cotton fluff from his massive chest wound. Seeing his dire situation, a group of nearby evac fairies rush to his aid and quickly whisk him through a portal to the Emerald City of OZ far from the death and destruction of the Neverlands. Far from harm… and far from his revenge.
"THINE EYES! THINE EYES!" Little Panther orders, causing his soldiers to quickly shield their eyes en masse as the sky rips open with a stunning supernova of blinding light to wash down upon the battlefield and blinding Hook's armies. From out of the tear, spews hundreds of battle-fairies who wash over Hook's forces like a deathly tide of shimmering gold led by the streaking emerald light of Pan himself flying towards Hook at break-neck speed.
Hook rages as his whole front-line and middle-forces are decimated, His fury takes on devastating force as massive wave energy explodes from his body, rippling across the battlefield de-atomizing all but a third of the attacking fairies.
"Yes, come and face your destiny boy," Hook muses, drawing his rapier as Peadar closes in.
"HOOK!" Peader screams. The deadly fang of his dagger collides with a deflecting motion from Hook's rapier as the grinning captain parries out of the way of the charging fey-boy. Pan 180s in the air to follow him up with a powerful swinging kick to the sound of Hook's face, but the captain raises his arm in defence, blocking the incoming kick and causing a small shockwave from the force.
Pan presses his attack with a downward falling heel strike, but Hook catches the boy's ankle. He grips it firmly and with a full 360 swing, tosses Pan, sending his body crashing through the great ashen trunk of the once monolithic Nevertree. Pan seeks to take advantage of the new distance between him and his opponent, but before he can, Hook is already upon him once more, striking at him with a series of quick and precise rapier strikes. Pan manages to dodge the strikes but just barely. Pan leaps into the air, seeking to find a new direction of attack.
He's so fast, faster than he's ever been… too fast? How is this possible? Peadar cries inside, his composure shaken.
NO! You can't give up, get back in there, you can do this.
"FLIGHT WON'T SAVE YOU NOW!" Hook bellows, unleashing another powerful beam of searing energy from the Pale Tower. Just before the beam can completely consume the boy like a butterfly in a great bolt of lightning, Tinker Bell rushes in between Peadar and the beam and, using every last bit of fairy magic she has, she incinerates her own body into a desperate powerful burst of protective magic, creating a shield in front of the boy she has loved ever since she first laid eyes on him all those centuries ago but could never love her back… not in the way she wanted. The shield acts like a boulder in the middle of a river, protecting that which is immediately behind it from the full force of the water's fury.
Peadar's heart shreds with the new sensations of pain and loss. Emotions both new and now unforgettable as he watches the friend who had stood by him ever since could remember, the woman who took care of him, raised him, turns her face to him one last time. Despite all the pain he knows she is in, she is smiling. One last smile for him. A final goodbye he hoped he would never have to endure.
While her sacrifice protects him from the full force of the blast, the beam still completely surrounds him, encasing him in an inferno of immense heat. The battle below stops as Peadar's cries of pain ring out from the blacked ash-choked heavens, a sound no one in the Neverlands had ever heard before, the cries of a god emitting from inside the beam. Both armies resume fighting as Pan's scorched smoking body falls from the sky.
Little Panther calls for Sir Teddels to take command of the surviving Ten-Nation Resistance forces while he starts fighting his way to Peadar's body as quickly as he can. Getting as close as he can, he leaps for it just barely managing to catch Peadar's badly burned body. He tucks and rolls, protecting the boy as they collide with the ground and the violent jostling wakes Peader. The boy looks deep into his long-time friend and ally's eyes as the grief over the loss of Tink overwhelms him. He cries for only the second time in his long life. The burn-covered and even moderately-charred boy sobs into Little Panther's arms. Little Panther holds the weeping lad close but keeps his battle awareness, spotting Hook off in the distance coming toward them.
"He coming, must go now. No victory for you here," Little Panther says, running from the battle carrying Peadar bridal style in hopes of getting his young god as far from the battle as possible.
Must get him to nearest Evac Fairies… too few left for too big battle.
Little Panther's hopes of escape are dashed as before they can even reach the edge of the battlefield, Hook teleports in front of them his sword already drawn and readied. Before either of them can react, Hook fires, blasting a hole through Little Panther's groin, causing him to drop Pan and fall to his knees clenching the bleeding remnants of his privates.
Little Panther wails with unimaginable torment but not for long as Hook places the barrel of his pistol to Little Panther's head.
"Useless degenerate savage," Hook mutters in sheer disgust as he spits in Little Panther's face and pulls the trigger, bringing the great chief's noble journey of courage and virtue to a bloody and unjust end. Pan desperately tries to drag his body away from Hook, but he is too weak and far too hurt to even crawl properly.
"Listen to it. Isn't beautiful. The sound of the screams and destruction as all you have loved and protected is purged from existence. Just listen to the exquisite music of it all. Appreciate it, for it is your requiem," Hook muses as he strolls cooly over to the defence and border-line immobile Pan.
"But I want you to know. You will be remembered… as the foolish child you are and as an example to all those who would dare to defy me," Hook continues, kicking the young boy onto his back so that he can look his once all-powerful rival in the eyes.
"How?" Peader blurts, almost too hurt to speak.
"Don't you understand? You are not the god of this world anymore… I am. It's just destiny. And now, my dear boy…your's ends here," Hook explains, drawing a shotgun from his back-holster and blasting off Pan's right arm at the shoulder. The boy's body convulses violently as the pain becomes too much, sending him into shock. Hook fires again, blasting off the boy's right leg at the knee. Darkness floods Peader's mind as he feels himself fading fast, unable to process the experience any further. There is a flash of gold and a brief but powerful kiss of warmth as the world fades into the abyss and the cold dark of the void takes him.