•MPHFPC ONE SHOTS•

<=STUNT DOUBLE=>

The wight carrying their cage wasn't doing it in a very gentle way. The cage was swinging back and forth like a pendulum in a clock and with every swing the two ymbrynes slid and fell, squawking in surprise.

"Keep your beaks shut." grunted the wight above them, his accent so mixed up, they couldn't tell which one it was.
He marched over to a thick metal door and knocked on it. Three times—a pause—then two times more. A code. Whoever was in there wanted to be bothered only on specific occasions.

The door was opened by a wight with such blonde hair, it almost looked white. On his uniform was a name tag. White.
Mr. White put on an idiotic grin. "Have you got the birds?" he asked, then answered his own question by looking down at the cage. "Ah, very nice! The boss is getting impatient, you know..." He glanced behind himself, nervously.

"Your birds, sir! Just like you wanted!" Mr. White called out. He stepped aside to let the other wight walk in. As he passed, Mr. White bent down to examine the cage and the ymbrynes both squawked at him, angrily and wings raised. "And they're petulant—typical for ymbrynes!" And he broke out cackling.

"Silence." a man in the back of the room said, sharply. Mr. White immediately stopped laughing and cleared his throat, awkwardly.
The man wasn't very tall. He had his back facing the two and his arms crossed behind it, looking out a small round window, common in submarines.

"It's your sister and—" Mr. White was silenced again.
"I know who they are. I'm not stupid. I could already tell by their pathetic screeching." the man said, still not looking at them. "Sit them down on the table over there."

The wight carrying the cage marched over to the table their boss indicated and put the cage down on it.
Finally the two ymbrynes had time to settle inside the cage without being swung around all the time. They sat very close to each other, as if cuddling and comforting each other made them feel safer.

Now, the man by the window was slowly turning around, a crooked grin spreading across his face as it gradually came into view.
His eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses that seemed a bit too big for him, the wrinkles in his face seeming to stretch over his sharp-featured face.
This man was Caul.

"Hello, Alma." he cooed. Then he paused, his smile vanishing. He saw Miss Avocet. "Oh, and hello to you as well."
Caul walked over, his arms still behind his back, taking slow but wide steps.
The two birds backed as far away in their cage as it was possible.

"Now, now. No need to be scared. You don't want to waste all your energy already, do you?" Caul said. "I need all twelve of you to be in perfect shape! Until then there's still plenty of time."

Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet looked at each other, as if thinking; All twelve of us?
"That's right! We're going to open a closed loop, ladies!" Caul answered, excitedly, as if he could read their minds. "With you I already have a whopping eleven of you ymbrynes! If only Balenciaga stopped escaping me all the time..."

Miss Peregrine screeched at him and Caul sighed. "Oh, I knooow, Alma. Your children will be just fine." he said, waving his hand up and down. "They won't be completely unsupervised, you know."

His sister tilted her head in question.
"I'll be keeping watch over them." Caul planted his palms on the table, grinning at them, closely. Then he straightened again, turned and laughed, striding through the room.

"Say, Alma. You see them as your children, right? Does that mean—" Caul paused to laugh again. "Does that mean I'm their uncle in some sort of way?"
Miss Peregrine stayed quiet.
"Well, then I can spend some time with the rest of our family!" he said, beaming.

Then he looked down and stopped smiling. "Now then..." Caul said, sighing. "I better not dally any longer. We don't want them give up on getting you back—oh wait, getting me back!"

Caul walked over to a door that seemed to be leading to a smaller room in the back. He stopped right in front of it and held out his hand. "The gel." he demanded.

Mr. White rushed over to him, reached into one of his pockets and took out a little tube, which seemed to be filled with an ointment. He gave it into Caul's open hand.
Caul nodded, then pulled down the big door handle and stepped inside. And then he was gone for a bit.

Mr. White smiled at the two ymbrynes from where he was standing. "Just a moment, ladies!"
Then he glanced over at the other wight and waved him to him.

"Will you throw him into the sea?" Mr. White whispered, as the other leaned in to listen. "I thought about it again and I don't think I can do it anymore...birds aren't my favourite type of animals."
The wight looked away for a second, as if he was about to roll his eyes, but didn't. Mr. White was an authority figure to him after all. So the wight just nodded.

"Good." Mr. White whispered again and then flinched when the door to the backroom flung open.
Caul stepped back out again, his clothes now loosely hanging on him, as if he got undressed and then didn't have enough time to put effort into putting them back on. His skin looked oily, covered in some sort of gel.

"Here." he said and squeezed the little tube back into Mr. White's hand. The wights watched their leader walk back to the ymbrynes.

"Ah..." Caul stretched his arms, as if warming up before running a marathon. "Let's see if I can still do it. It's been a while since I last turned into a bird."

Miss Avocet screeched at him, but Caul only laughed. "I can only understand my sister, woman. Don't waste your breath." Then he held up a finger. "Now watch and see what your former student can still do. Hope you're proud of me."

In the blink of an eye Caul shrank into his clothes and they fell to the floor. Seconds later, he shot out of the pile of clothes, in bird form, flying towards Mr. White, who tensed up, then panicked and ran away.

The other wight came running and Caul flew into his arms instead and made himself comfortable there. As the peregrine falcon met Mr. White's eyes, he screeched at him, angrily. You fucking idiot!
Mr. White was glad he couldn't understand his boss in that moment. He only nodded quickly and nervously.

Lastly, Caul squawked at Miss Peregrine—See you later, sister!—and she squawked something back, quietly and looked down.
The wight carrying Caul, climbed up a ladder. Caul sat in the crook of his left arm, like a stuffed toy, while the wight slowly climbed up with the other arm.

On top of the submarine, the wight held his leader up into the air and Caul took off. He flew for a bit, then folded his wings close to his body and dived into the waves of the sea like a small bomb.

When he surfaced again, he started flapping his wings, frantically and screeched for help. A perfect planned performance, which was the start of his plan to reach out to Miss Wren in the next few days.

"Miss Peregrine?!" a voice shouted. "Jacob, she's there!"
It were Emma and Jacob, trying to keep themselves overwater. Now they swam towards the bird, having found new strength to rescue their fake headmistress.

The trick had worked.