ic Return to Neverworld: Never/Forever

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Tik. Tok.

 

The Hooked Man groaned. The Forever Boy's strike left him reeling, and then the automaton was before him, hands on either side of his head, squeezing. He was clearly in pain, his body making unnatural sounds as Angelic continued her work, doing anything but living up to her name.

 

With a mighty effort, he pushed himself free, waving his sword wildly. Enough to break her hold, but not enough to actually hit her.

 

"Ha! Flesh and bone? I am much more than that!" 

 

He stood tall, sword held between him and his attackers.

 

"I am Hook! I am order in this chaos! And you? You are nothing! A soulless automaton! A thing!"

 

Tik.

 

The wave of white crept ever closer.

 

The Great Detectives looked away from the Mad Professor. In the moment of distraction, he stabbed at them. And then they were gone.

 

Tok.

 

The Crocodile moved ever closer, standing above the Hooked Man's ship, observing the battle on the deck.

Edited September 1, 2021 by RocketLord

[KnightDisciple]

There was a sudden rumble in the sky, and a cloud formed above Hook's ship. Then, the deck was bathed in emerald light as the Thunderbird rose on wings of crackling green lightning, shaped like a terrible bird of prey. He paused for a moment a few dozen feet above the ship's deck. His right hand reached skyward, and a bolt of energy was simply in his hand. Then in a flash and a crack of thunder, he was on the ship, standing such that he, Pan, and Angelic formed something of a triangle around Hook. Micah reared his hand back with a snarl on his face and cracked goggles over his eyes.

 

"I think you're a-" several Cherokee words his mother would blush to hear "-and that all you represent is tyranny. Just another white man with delusions of grandeur. Me? I'm the storm, Hook."

 

HIs arm snapped forward, and the bolt flew true. 

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

"Eira Katastroff Natt och Dag!" Pan sounded absolutely furious as he called out to her.

 

He moved out of the formation that Micah had created. Instead he was by Eira's side in a moment, his arms wrapping around her.

 

"Enough!" He sounded desperate. "Look around you! Listen to yourself! This is not who you are! You can be mean, you can hurt others, but this? You sound like the Hooked Man! He's the tyrant, not you! Whatever else you may be, whatever else we may be, you are a hero! You are my hero!"

 

Pan turned to the Hooked Man, and held out his hand towards him. His shadow surged around his enemy's body, tightening around him, keeping him in place.

 

"Now, please. I got him. All of us together. We will stop him!"

[Avenger Assembled]

A human girl would have been panting, out of breath, but of course Eira only did that when she was so inclined. She reached out towards the bound Hooked Man without any force and said softly "The dead are not bound by the laws of men. Imagine the beauty of it. The beauty of a world made by science..." Her voice trailed off, not into silence but with a distinct metallic whine, and when it returned it sounded distinctly - tinny, as if Pan and Micah were listening to an old-fashioned radio set. "I am not compatible with this _world's - laws of ^physics. I am not ^_w-w-well." 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Tik.

 

Tok.

 

The white was creeping ever closer. At the edge of sight, the horizon was disappearing into featureless white. 

 

Tik.

 

Tok.

 

The Hooked Man slumped forward, bound in shadow. His breath was ragged. 

 

"Nothing is right! Nothing is well!" He spit poison as he struggled to rise. His body was broken. His spirit far from. "Do you not understand? This is the end! The summer is over! The fall is coming! The story has happened before, and it will happen again! Again and again, until I win! As long as I live, I will shape the story!"

 

Tik.

 

The Crocodile grunted. It glared at the people below.

 

The undending white crept closer and closer. Soon the ocean and Victori would disappear.

[KnightDisciple]

"Sounds like you're just scared, Hook. Scared of losing. Scared of being...irrelevant? Scared of change?"

 

Micah stood there, his energy-wings folded on his back. A scowl was on his face, enhanced by his goggles. His hands flexed open and closed several times.

 

"So because of that fear, you just...what, violated everything? Performed atrocities? The war you started, the things you did to your own crew! But the thing you're most wrong about, is the thought that someone like you will ever win."

 

He stepped closer and leaned over Hook.

 

"People like us will always stand in your way."

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

Pan held Eira close. She was not herself. No, she was not herself in any way. This was all too much, was it not? Pan's home was so different, the rules so unlike what she was used to.

 

"You will be. I am here, and, you see, I made a wish. A wish that you and Micah would return home, safe and sound. And wishes do come true, if you work for them." He smiled at Eira, while he looked at her, still holding her.

 

He looked around, while Micah spoke. His interest in the Hooked Man seemed to have been replaced by concern from his friends. He saw the white that approached. "It is all ending." Everything was ending, then? The Crocodile stood above him them, staring at the scene on the ship. Unafraid, Pan returned it's stare.

 

And his eyes lit up with realization. Scared of change? He was Pan, the Forever Boy! Why should he be scared?

 

His lips split into a smile.

 

He stood up, holding Eira with one arm, taking Micah's hand with his other. He looked up at the Crocodile.

 

"Go on, then! End this! Do what you came to do!"

 

Pan looked to Eira, and to Micah, and back again.

 

"The fall is coming, yes? Neverworld is ending! But why should we be scared of change?" He echoed Micah's words, from the moment before. "What if, at the end of Never, there is Forever?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"Pretty boy," said Eira with a smile, her voice whirring and clicking. "In ^the real _world, Miss Americana must have activated another version of me already. They will never know about ^this-_this-_^this." Her hand tightened in Pan's where she leaned against him, "I knew that the m-m-moment we arrived here. A shadow of a thing that has been. All this time, I just wanted to be - something more than I was. I hope you see a light..." As the wall of white closed in, Eira Katastroff considered her options and closed her eyes, and smiled as the last two years played inside her head faster than the human mind could follow. Until there was nothing else. 

[KnightDisciple]

Micah looked up at the Crocodile, then looked out at the approaching wave of white light. He felt sadness at the thought of what was going to be wiped away, but a tiny bit of relief. Perhaps these people would find the next...season...of life here less traumatic. It was hard to tell.

 

"Really hope the crocodile doesn't need to eat us for this to go down. Not an experience I want."

 

He turned to his friends, his face softening as he looked at Eira. He laid a hand gently on her twitching shoulders.

 

"You're more than a shadow, Eira."

 

His gaze turned to Pan.

 

"I'm glad to stand beside you, my friend."

 

He bowed his head, and wings of gently glowing emerald motes circled all three of the teenagers as the walls of white closed in. 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Tik.

 

Tok.

 

Time was up.

 

"Come, then!" the Hooked Man bellowed as the white nothing closed in around them, bringing the fall.

 

The Crocodile's mouth opened, and it moved swiftly. In one bite, the Hooked Man was gone from sight. All that remained was his scarlet coat.

 

As the white encroached them, the giant beast looked down on the group, held tight in the Thunderbird's wings. It breathed heavily on them, and then it too was gone, caught up in the nothing of white that were all around them.

 

In moments, everything was gone.

 

All that remained was Angelic, Thunderbird, the Forever Boy and the Hooked Man's coat, surrounded by endless white of nothing.

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

Pan smiled, holding Eira close while Micah's wings surrounded them. There was something more to the smile than his usual cheer. He knew something. He looked up at Micah briefly, and then, when everything else was gone, he stood, breaking free of Micah's wings.

 

"Open your eyes, Eira. It was not the end, just an end."

 

He swung his arm out to the side, out towards the endless white that surrounded them.

 

"I promised that I would get you home, and I keep my promises, do I not?" 

 

Once more, the Forever Boy took Micah's hands, as well as Eira's, while they stood in the white nothing, their feet somehow touching solid ground that was not there.

 

"Do you see? This is not nothing! This is everything! The Hooked Man told us, but he had it all wrong: This story has happened before, and it will happen again! But not as he expected. See, something is very different, from all those other times! This time you are here! Love and friendship! For once, he did not win! And, Micah made a wish to the Pixies: That everyone would come out on the other side, not as they were, but better!" 

 

Pan smiled. His smile was brilliant. 

 

"Look! It is not nothing! It is an empty page! Full of promise!"

 

Beneath their feet, grey rock began to form. It cut through the white nothing, spreading out, their feet now upon a skull faced rock in the middle of the sea that formed beneath them, the bright blue sky above them, islands forming in the distance. 

 

"Welcome to Foreverworld!" 

Edited September 10, 2021 by RocketLord

[Avenger Assembled]

Eira opened her eyes to find not the nothing she'd expected or the afterlife she hadn't dared imagine - but something else entirely. A part of her wanted to retreat back into the comforting silence of her own head, but something was wrong there as well. Blinking, she stepped away from the boys and appeared to be distinctly wobbling, as if the corner of reality that held her was still unstable. "No, no," she was muttering to herself, raising a hand that looked decidedly pinker than usual, with veins bulging on the back of her hand and a distinctly visible pulse. "No, this is not what I want -" She closed her hand into a fist and visibly flesh rippled before settling down into the slight pallor the boys were familiar with. "If this is a land of stories, I write my own." She gritted her teeth and hissed aloud. "She is dead!" With that final surge of willpower, she concentrated and her body shifted into the cool cold chrome of a machine. With a hard smile on her face, she walked back over to join the boys. "We did it," she told Pan reflectively. "We defeated this place." 

[KnightDisciple]

Micah knew Eira well enough now that he hid his sadness at her angry rejection of being something besides metal and plastic. He could appreciate she wanted to choose her own future, but he remembered the screaming and anger when they'd visited her home. It seems she still needed to find peace with parts of herself. Instead, he just smiled at his friends as his powers faded away. 

 

"We didn't defeat this place, Eira. We defeated Hook, but as for Never...well, I guess Foreverworld? Seems like we saved it."

 

He smiled and crossed his arms over his chest. 

 

"Seems like a good start to a new book, yeah?"

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

Pan simply smiled at his friends, as Eira changed from human to machine, from the pale girl that he had only seen in pictures to the young woman that he knew. He didn't seem bothered at all, aside from maybe his words. He looked down at his own hands. They were glowing with a faint light. Different from the usual golden gold, the light seemed to be leaving his body. It was spreading.

 

"Yes, it seems like it will be a brand new story." 

 

He held his open hand out in front of himself, letting the others see the faint glimmers of his self floating away. 

 

"I suppose Foreverworld will need a Forever Boy..." He sounded resigned to the fact.

 

Then, the Forever Boy clenched his hand. 

 

"No. I will not."

 

He whirled around, moving away from the others. 

 

"My story. My rules." His voice was harder, full of defiance.

 

Golden Pixie Dust swirled around him, dancing as he picked up Hook's scarlet coat with one hand, then threw the other hand up, towards the sky. 

 

"And we are all going home!"

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The ground beneath their feet shook and warped. The rock changed, and once again, they found themselves standing on a flying ship, one that was lifting towards the sky. 

 

Shining, golden dust whirled from around the Forever Boy, mixing with the faint light that floated from his body, becoming a swirling rainbow tunnel that led into the sky.

 

The Forever Boy took the helm, as the shift lifted towards the sky, even as his self continued to disappear into the rainbow tunnel that led them to home.

[Avenger Assembled]

Angelic looked up at the gateway and, without a backwards glance, leaped upwards. So much she'd built, so much she'd lost. What was waiting for them on the other side, after all this time? 

[KnightDisciple]

Micah couldn't help the huge smile that split his face as Pan not only asserted himself against disappearing, but seemed to help shift the narrative of his home world. Dimension. Whatever. He looked Pan in the eye, a sparkle back in his own that hadn't been there since almost as soon as they arrived. 

 

"Next time you want me to come visit your house, just ask, okay? Anyway, I think we ought to see about swinging by my place later, get some pie. My mom makes great pie."

 

With that declaration, Thunderbird turned his own eyes to the doorway in the heavens, spread his glowing wings, and took off like a bolt of thunder. He'd be at the gate in moments. 

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

A swirling rainbow tunnel, whatever harm, whatever changes... it all reverted. They became as they had been before. Physically, at least.

 

Except for the Forever Boy.

 

The pieces of light continued to fall off him, pieces of self left behind as he escaped the story that was laid out for him.

 

As they raced through the endless possibility between worlds, through the Z-Space that laid on an angle to the X-Space and Y-Space. He could see now. It made so much sense.

 

He escaped the story set out for him. He made his own now.

 

The end of the tunnel. Back to Earth. 

 

Time for something new.

 

[RocketLord]

GM

 

High above Millenium Mall, a golden pirate ship and two flying people broke through the walls of reality in a shower of rainbow sparks. They had been gone for weeks, maybe months.

 

Lulu was standing below, in the middle of the chaos of the defeated Sky-Pirates, police taking care of them.

 

To her, only an hour had passed.

 

As the golden ship broke through the walls of reality, Pan changed. His hair was longer, wilder. His clothes different. His smile was, as ever, just a little too wide.

Edited October 4, 2021 by RocketLord

[KnightDisciple]

As they breached back into the "regular" world, his world, Thunderbird cast his eyes about for several moments. It was like barely anything had changed. Then he saw Lulu standing below. He blinked beneath his goggles and angled for the ship's deck. He handed to Pan's front left, one foot propped up on the bottom of the railing around the quarterdeck. He hadn't meant to, but he struck a bit of a dashing figure as a sailing man, even with his wings still manifest, albeit folded up on his back.

 

"Pan, uh, bro? Did we do some kind of wacky time thing? Because it sure looks like that's pretty much how we left things when we went to Neverworld, despite spending literally weeks there."

[Avenger Assembled]

Eira cocked her head and looked up as they arrived, reconnecting to the local data networks instantly. She relaxed visibly, then said, "Yes. Less than a hundred seconds after our initial departure. I-I have a significant quantity of anomalous data-" She hesitated, then released Pan. "If my data is corrupted, that is a very serious problem. I am going to see Miss Americana. Pan, I...I will see you soon."  And with that final hesitation, she spread her wings and took off into the sky. 

[RocketLord]

Forever Boy

 

Pan chuckled at Micah's question, quickly grasping around his friend's shoulder. He was about to say something, then Eira spoke up and... flew off. The Forever Boy looked after her, a worried expression passing over his face for a moment, before returning to a wide smile.

 

"It is a curious thing, is it not?" he asked his friends, while he looked after Eira. "Who can ever tell how long a story will be?"

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Neverworld.

 

Foreverworld.

 

A story that had happened before.

 

And was now happening again. 

 

But, who could tell what the new story would bring? What stories, friends and allies would wait?

 

And as the ship faded, as the chaos of the new story unfolded around them, Micah, Eira and Pan could, for just a moment, hear a faint, rapidly fading sound.

 

Tick.

 

Tock.