Hey everyone! Its been so long since I posted anything and this story has been in my email for like three months so I thought 'why not?'
Anyways, I hope you enjoy it. I might take a while in updating. As always please leave your reviews on anything! Thanks and happy reading!
Jack flew above empty streets, taking in how snowflakes lit up as they passed under the soft orange glow of the street lights. He looked up as he landed lightly on a roof, gold sand was swirling and flowing down, going from house to house delivering dreams to the sleeping children of Burgess.
he felt a sad smile tug on his lips, it had been a good day, filled with laughter from both him and the children, but that had changed quickly when he was reminded of just hows mall his group of believers still was. It was hard to pretend everything was a-ok when a young child walked right through him, completely unaware of his presence. Which was part of the reason he hasn't fully come to terms with being a Guardian, how was he supposed to protect children if most of them didn't even know he existed?
His attention was brought back to the present when a swirl of glittering sand rushed past his face, creating a beautiful effect as it mixed with the light snowfall. It's so pretty, he thought as he reached out to touch it. Golden sand figures popped to life, dolphins and birds raced around his him, a strange combination and yet it works. Jack chuckled softly to himself before turning around and jumping off the roof and into the air.
He flew a short distance before landing once again, this time on the roof of a five story apartment building, high enough to see most of the town, yet short enough to still have a clear view of the magic sand as it swirled through the air.
With one hand in his sweatshirt pocket and the other holding his staff upright, Jack stared out as fat, lazy snowflakes fell down towards the dimly lit town. The whole thing had a peaceful lulling affect, and he soon felt his eyelids growing heavier and knew that it was time to retreat back to the lake for the night.
A sudden racket in a nearby alley snapped Jack back to his senses, it sounded as if something was being tossed around. A loud wail broke the silence of the night. In a flash, Jack was in the air
flying over to the ruckus, when he reached the alley there was- nothing?
Jack floated down and inspected the area. Garbage bins were knocked over and trash littered the floor, obvious signs of a struggle, but there was nothing else there. Jack stood rubbing the back of his head in confusion, a small piece of green cloth laying amongst the debris caught his eye. Picking it up, Jack realized it was glowing slightly, mmmmhh?. Jack was about to leave the alley when a shadow flashed past the corner of his eye. Turning quickly, he caught a glimpse of a long shadow slinking around the corner. Without a moment's hesitation he darted after it, rounding the corner quickly in order to keep up with his target.
The shadow moved quickly down the empty streets, seemingly unaware that Jack was in pursuit. Just as he was closing in on it, the thing made a sharp turn into another alley, causing a monstrous crash which was followed by a pained cry.
Jack slowed himself before approaching the opening of the alley. He crept quietly along the wall of a building, getting closer to the sounds of the struggle. A low growl, something tearing, a muffled snort. Jack edged closer to the corner and peered carefully into the darkness, he felt his eyes widen as he watch as a large black shadow toss a small figure clad in green, into the air and swallow it!?
With a gasp Jack stepped back, scattering some discarded cans,-a Nightmare! What was a Nightmare doing here? Pitch had been defeated!He had, hadn't he?
The black horse snapped its head in his direction, having been alerted by the sound of the cans. It locked its glowing yellow eyes on Jack's blue ones.
Jack cursed himself silently and tightened his grip on his staff before taking off. He was out of the alley and flying down the empty streets before he even knew it. A quick glance behind him only confirmed what he had already suspected; the horse was following and it was already gaining on him. Jack pushed himself faster, zigzagging through the streets, trying to shake the black horse, at least long enough so that he'd be able to come up with a better idea.
He suddenly found himself facing a dead-end, somehow in his rush to get away from the dark creature behind him, he had successfully managed to trap himself. Oh Great! I'm an idiot! he rebuked himself. Raising his staff, Jack turned to face the evil horse-if it were possible the thing looked even bigger and more menacing up close. Jack narrowed his eyes at it,
"Alright you overgrown rocking-horse, you wana fight?" He pointed his staff toward the horse, which raised itself on its hind legs and threw it head back with a piercing whinny. Jack flinched at the sound but sent a shot of ice at it, the blast hit its mouth directly, effectively shutting it up. The Nightmare dropped back to all fours in surprise, Jack couldn't help but laugh,
"Hah! What's the matter horsey, don't like the cold?" he teased.
The horse, having recovered from shock, looked even more angry than before, its yellow eyes glaring dangerously at the winter spirit. Suddenly, he black sand started shifting, readjusting itself and seeming to expand, changing the shape from a horse of normal stature to that of a beast three times as large.
"Well," Jack said lowly, gaping up at the giant horse that now towered over him "...that's...new."
With a loud roar the horse threw itself forward, barreling towards the young spirit, like a freight train on the loose. Luckily, Jack had speed and agility on his side, he easily jumped to the side and sent another blast of ice at the creature's feet. The ice instantly froze the horse to the ground, allowing him to hurry out of the alley and down the street.
After a few moments Jack allowed himself to look back over his shoulder, the horse wasn't behind him, maybe it had given up?
All thoughts of the black horse left his mind when a bright flash of light caught his attention. Turning his head, Jack felt his eyes widen and tried to stop himself all too late. He collided with something big and heavy, sending him tumbling towards the ground, his staff knocked from his grasp. Jack landed heavily on his stomach, the impact knocking the air out of him. As his vision returned to normal, the winter spirit vaguely heard voices arguing around him,
"Oh, what was that?"
"You hear something?"
"Ay! ya hurry up and land this thing!"
With a frustrated groan, Jack pushed himself off the ground and scooped up his staff.
"There! You heard that, right?"
Spoke a female voice in a quick, neurotic pace.
"Quit talkin' ya nonesense-"
"Nothing is there, what are talkin-"
"Hey!" Yelled Jack irritably, glaring around the darkness, trying to find the source of the bickering.
"Who said that! Show yourself!" A loud, booming voice demanded from above- above? Jack craned his neck upwards and was met with the sight of the giant red sleigh floating about thirteen feet off the ground.
"Figures..." the spirit mutter,
"I won't ask again! Show yourself." The loud voice demanded again.
"Down here!" He called, rolling his eyes, the Guardians were so clueless sometimes. Jack watched as the beard covered face of North peered over the sleigh's edge, followed by the green head of Tooth, and last but not least Bunnymund, who looked like he was about to be sick.
"Aha! Jack. Precisely the person we wanted to see" North commented joyfully, completely dismissing the fact that his sleigh had just plowed into the winter spirit.
"What are you doing down there?" He asked as the sleigh began to float down gently.
"Oh you know, crashing into magic floating sleighs is a part time hobby of mine."
"What? That sounds dangerous! you could get hurt. Or worse you could lose a tooth" Tooth flew down next to Jack in an instant
"Oh no, the teeth! Are they okay? Tell me you didn't break them!?" She had her fingers prying his mouth open before he could even answer.
"Ooth, agh! Touh staapp!"
"Tooth! Take ya fingers outta there, you don' know where 'es been." Thankfully Bunnymund had decided to intervene, despite his comment.
Tooth retracted her hands immediately and smiled sheepishly.
"Sorry, you know how I get if teeth are put in danger!" She flew back to her little cloud of fairies muttering instructions a hundred words per second.
Jack laughed slightly and rolled his eyes, turning to North,
"So, why are you all here? And why did you say you wanted to see to me?" He asked raising an eyebrow.
"Yes, yes. There is something going on we-
where's Sandy?" asked the big Russian, easily distracted.
"He should be here by now...ah! There he is!" as if on cue Sandy floated down on a glittering gold cloud, waving as he made his descent.
"Anyway, as was saying, it look like there's trouble again."
Jack's mind flashed back to the last time there had been 'trouble.' He remembered how terrible that had almost ended. How he had all but failed the Guardians, the fact that they had been lucky to defeat Pitch
Pitch! His thoughts suddenly went back to the Nightmare in the alley, could Pitch be back?
"Whoa, whoa, whoa. You're saying something's wrong? Already?"
"that's kinda tha definition of trouble..." he heard Bunnymund mumble.
"Yes, it seems so" North said,
"Is it Pitch? Is he back?" Jack felt dread starting to build up inside him, defeating Pitch last time hadn't been easy, and it almost ended in disaster.
"Eh...we are not so sure. It seems very possible." North admitted with a shrug.
"How can you not be sure?" Jack asked loudly, flabbergasted at how the Guardians didn't know what was going on. He quickly tried to come up with a plan to defeat the Nightmare King,
"If it is Pitch, we'll just bust him like last time. He can't be too strong right now-"
"Its not that simple, Jack" Tooth fluttered around, "we don't know if its Pitch because well... things are different this time."
"Different," he echoed
"how?"
Bunny rolled his eyes
"Spirits 'ave been disappearing. One moment they're 'ere, tha next they're gone. Poof. disappeared withoutta trace."
"Yes," North nodded solemnly. "it started with Sam Haine, the Spirit of Halloween, then Aurora, the Spirit of the Dawn, a few others too." he said gravely, something so uncharacteristic of him.
"And, few hours ago we received word of Leprechaun in distress, he ask us to come help."
"...The leprechaun..." Jack looked at his hand, realizing wit a start that the piece of green cloth was still clutched tightly between his fingers.
"This wouldn't happen to belong to him, would it." He held up the little piece of glowing green fabric. Tooth flew up to it, inspecting the cloth closely,
"Yes that's his!" She exclaimed after a few seconds. "Where did you find it?"
"I found it in an alley aft-."
North looked at him, "did you see Leprechaun?"
"Well, no but-"
"Whadaya' mean 'no'?" Bunny interrupted.
"I mean, as in 'no' I didn't see the Leprechaun," Jack snapped, his patience quickly thinning.
"At least not by himself"
Taking a deep breath, Jack recounted his story to the other Guardians,
"I was just standing around when I heard something in an alley so I checked it out, I found the green cloth there but nothing else, I was gonna leave but then I saw a shadow, so I followed it and when I did catch up with it, it turned out to be a Nightmare and it swallowed something, which I'm guessing was the Leprechaun, which is really gross if you ask me, but anyways, it saw me and then it started chasing me. I had just gotten away when I bumped into you guys. Literally."
The other Guardians stared at him, mouths agape, Sandy with a confused look on his face. They where still processing what Jack had said in his very long sentence. Finally Tooth spoke up, breaking the silence,
"So...the Leprechaun has been taken-...swallowed-by a Nightmare?"
"But...how can this be?" North asked, truly at a loss for words.
"Pitch was defeated, he is weak. He has no power, he could not have control of Nightmares so quickly."
"But then how do you explain the Nightmare? And the Spirits disappearing?" Jack questioned, trying to think of anyone else who could be responsible for what was happening, and coming up with nothing.
"I mean who else can be controlling Nightmares?"
"Ay, Frostbite's got a point. There's no otha explanation."
Sandy nodded in agreement, he too couldn't think of anyone else. North sighed and ran a hand through his beard,
"We must not jump to conclusions, although it does seem too much for it not to be Pitch."
Suddenly getting an idea, North threw his arms open,
"We must go back to the Pole and think of plan!"
With that he turned and walked back to his sleigh. Not really looking if the others were following. Bunnymund instantly protested,
"There's no way I'm gettin' back on that thing!"
Jack laughed the rabbit's discomfort,
"C'mon Cottontail, its not so bad."
Bunnymund snorted,
"Maybe you 'ave a death wish, but I certainly don'!"
"No more arguing! We get to the Pole now!"
Without further encouragement from the Guardian of Wonder, Tooth flew into the sleigh, Jack smirked at Bunny one last time before jumping in, Sandy had already seated himself quietly, everyone was waiting for Bunny.
"Ahh, Bunny, why must we do this every time? Hurry up, get in, no other way fast enough"
"Uh- I really think ma tunne-NO! Not again, NORTH!" The poor rabbit didn't even have a chance to get away before North grabbed him by the back and quickly tossed him into the sleigh. Wasting no more time, he snapped the reins and the sleigh jerked into the sky, flying through a bright portal as Bunny's yells and curses were followed by Jack's hysterical laughter.
Back in a dark alley, a shadowed figure watched the Guardians leave. A malicious grin fell upon the figure's face, they had absolutely no idea what was in store for them, this will be fun.
"Good luck finding a way out of this one, Guardians."
And with that the figure disappeared, leaving the quiet town of Burgess behind.