Warnings for this fanfic- Terrible summary, lameness, randomness, OCs, and perhaps some OOC. That's all that needs to be said.
*turns to leave*
*literally freezes in place*
Me: JACK! WHY THE HECK DID YOU FREEZE ME?!
Jack: You forgot something *lopsided smirk*
Me: WHAT?! I DON'T THINK I- Oh. Disclaimer T.T
Jack: Yep.
Me: Why don't you do it?
Jack: Nah. You're the author of this.
Me: *groans* Whatever fineeeee.
I do not own Rise of the Guardians
so please do not sue me and JACK PLEASE UNFREEZE ME NOW I'M VERY COLD.
Chapter 1: Spirit of the Wishing Star
The sun blazed brightly, glowing like a sphere of gold jewels and illuminating the day with its warm rays of light. Thin cotton-white clouds rolled leisurely across the azure sky, of which there were actually very few of them. It was hot, and it was as if the heat of the sun had just evaporated them out of the atmosphere. An occasional breeze flew through the air, swaying the leaves of trees and rattling them against one another in the forest. But it was still warm. Too annoyingly warm for late April, and irritatingly uncomfortable for a certain teenage winter spirit.
Laying passed-out along a thin, sturdy branch rather carelessly while hanging one arm over his face just to block out the bits of sunlight that managed to filter down through the leaves of the tree he was resting on, was Jack Frost. The webbings of frost that usually decorated the fabric of his navy blue hoodie and old brown capris had now faded, having melted away due to the heat, also along with the ice that had thinly layered parts of the Guardian's staff. Ferns of frost had managed to crawl along his resting-branch but had also melted away, too, again due to the heat.
Jack hated heat.
No, just because he was the spirit of winter didn't mean he would melt, necessarily. Maybe if it were really hot, like equator-zone hot, then he'd sweat. He may have been winter's very personification, but that didn't mean he was made of winter and snow and such; Jack was human. He was just more accustomed to the cold and found heat not unbearable but more than a bit uncomfortable, therefore why he wasn't too pleasant with the situation he was in now.
He really wanted to just use his ice powers to freeze a little ice fort around himself, perhaps, but he resisted that urge. He didn't want to hear another of Mother Nature's long, droning lectures again on how he shouldn't be bringing anything associated with winter into seasons that were out of his territory for any snow or ice. Last time that happened, oh, one wouldn't believe how long that woman could talk. You simply don't want to mess with Nature.
It was April, meaning it was spring now in most parts of the world, including Burgess, Pennsylvania. Jack had traveled nearly all across the globe and had seen many different places ranging from ancient to fancy to breath-taking and jaw-slacking and so on, but no matter how ordinary this place was, Burgess was home. It was where he was born in both of his lives, also - mortal and immortal. So that's where he was now. Unfortunately it seemed like the spirit of spring wasn't exactly in the mood for the winter spirit to ruin his season though - again, it's all that damned heat - so Jack needed to get someplace else. Right now he could think of three options.
One - the Southern Hemisphere, where it would be fall.
Jack didn't mind autumn much, or it's spirit; the weather was nice and cool when it was fall, so pretty bearable. But honestly he simply didn't feel like going there now, though. So then he considered his second option:
The South Pole, Antarctica.
He inwardly shuddered. Antarctica definitely would be nice-and-wintery enough, but... it was an icy desolation. Jack had only been there perhaps once or twice, usually times when he wanted to be all alone. He had been alone anyways and no one could see him before, yeah, but the place was completely empty and it had given him a slight sense of comfort to be alone within the tundra with the wind raking through his hair and no one to obliviously walk through him there. It was simply of surrounding ice, snow, cold, and isolation - all that he was. Jack had gone there two years ago during the last Battle of Belief, and then that's when Pitch had shown up out of the blue to try and convince him to join the dark side. Ha. So yeah, not very pleasant things there, in the South Pole.
Jack wasn't alone though now, of course. He had the others, and he had his believers. An unconscious grin tugged at Jack's lips at the thought of the Bennett kids; he wasn't one for favorites, but he had to admit, he did visit Jamie, Sophie, and their friends here in Burgess more often than anyone else. Right now, speaking of which, they were all at school, but Jack had visited Jamie earlier today before he went to crash here in the forest and lay bored to the skull in a tree under the morning heat.
Anyways, so, that all left his third option, to which he think he'd rather opt to: The North Pole.
Jack sat up and smirked. Ah, the North Pole - and North's Workshop. Even though he was a Guardian now, it was still fun to enter the place through the windows (it was efficient, though, anyways) and piss off all the yetis. Last time he did that and had creeped up on some of the oblivious ones from behind and dumped snow on their heads, oh, gosh... The yetis scream like girls! That as in, well, if girls were seven-foot-tall furry beasts that work to build toys for Santa and all have a mutual disliking for a certain Guardian of Fun.
Messing with them was always so amusing. Perhaps this time Jack could test out the egg grenade bomb that he'd stolen from Bunny before, to which the Pooka fortunately hadn't yet noticed. He didn't want to take it if he knew it caused a dangerous explosion, but he'd seen what happened with these ones - the egg bomb Jack stole simply burst into a large cloud of colorful smoke, probably made to blind or distract an enemy... Or, of course, cover them in swirly yellow and green paint.
Snickering, the winter spirit took off, calling the wind to take him to the Pole.
"-fifteen cuspids in London, Sector 2; a left lateral incisor in Baltimore belonging to Timmy Harkville; two upper incisor teeth in South Africa for those two Woodland girls, the twins. There's a possible flock of birds you should watch out for-"
"Wha' do ya mean ya don't know why ya called us 'ere?"
"-said I didn't signal ze lights! Perhaps iss Manny-"
Jack's feet landed gracefully on cool marble floor, a small breeze following in after him into the room with his entrance. Flipping his staff over his shoulder and slouching down against a table, Jack raised an eyebrow at the scene before him. He'd entered the Workshop into the Globe room, seeing that a window had been left open here and hearing noises coming from within. He was surprised to see that all the other Guardians were here, for whatever reason that could have been; they all had monthly meetings now, but those usually happened at the beginning of the month, so now it wasn't expected that they'd all gather. At the moment, North and Bunny were in the middle of an argument that had now again managed to switch topics to which holiday was better...
"-besides, Easter has passed! I do not see vhy you would be bothered anyways."
"I still have other work to do besides paint eggs, North. Plus-"
"Rabbits and their holidays.."
"Oh well at least I don't go 'round breakin' and enterin' int'a people's homes to steal cookies."
"Christmas iss time of wonder and spirit, and I only do dat to bring ze gifts! I-"
"Easter-"
The spirit of winter rolled his eyes at the typical sight. It was best to just leave them alone until they get tired of their own constant bickering. He could freeze their mouths shut, but that would just cause more of a ruckus for them and Jack would be sure to be receiving a bucket of coal for Christmas and have his hair dyed pink. So then Jack glanced at the other two non-bickering Guardians in the room.
Tooth was, as usual, busy and energetic while she zipped around giving out rapid-pace orders to the group of buzzing mini fairies around her. What she said came out so fast it was nearly impossible for Jack to comprehend the Fairy Queen's words. He wanted to go up and ask her what they were all doing here but with the speed of her movements and the razor-sharpness of her wings... he'd rather not risk it.
Dozing off to his right was the Sandman, a half-finished cup of eggnog still held up in one hand. Jack snickered at seeing an elf try to get to it before simply flicking his staff and freezing it in amusement. Nothing too bad for the little guy - it'd thaw out soon with the radiating warmth of the nearby fireplace.
Jack sighed, double-glancing around the room once more. No one had noticed him yet. He took to spinning and tossing his staff from one hand to another in a bored manner, causing a few small snowflakes to form in the air. Then he stopped, something bright catching his eye in the corner of the room; but when he looked up, whatever it was seemed to have gone. Jack shook it off as probably an elf messing around with Christmas light strings again, or a reflection of some light. He began to twirl his staff again with ease and still-remaining boredom.
Spin, spin, spin...
North and Bunny were still arguing.
Jack stopped twirling and idly tapped the curved end of his staff to the floor, watching with a small grin as intricate frost designs began to spread across the veined marble floor, curling and twisting like ferns. He'd always loved that about being the spirit of winter - being able to create these beautiful artworks of ice just by a simple light touch. The ice crawled outwards, making quiet crackling sounds as it spread, then-
"Woah!" Jack blinked as something bright darted past his vision. There it was again! The light! It was like that of a camera flash, bright and fast. He stared down at the frost in confusion, then around the room. The others didn't seem to see anything unusual. What was that?
Tap, tap.
The winter teen whipped around in bemusement, head turning every which way trying to find out what had just poked him in the shoulder. It couldn't be the elves; there were none nearby. Then he heard a small laugh, coming from behind him again and where he was formerly facing. Jack turned and there was nothing but the frost on the floor, the two arguing Guardians, a busy Toothiana, and the still-sleeping Sandman. Huh?
Bunny seems to have finally gotten tired of arguing and had now retreated to another part of the room to lean against a pillar, taking out a boomerang and beginning to spin it in boredom. Jack's eyes widened at the sight of a hand suddenly pop out from behind the pillar, wrist adorned in a silver chain bracelet, moving near the unsuspecting Bunnymund. He opened his mouth to warn the other guardian but stopped midway when the hand had now already reached him, moving under the Pooka's furry chin to... scratch.
The Easter Bunny yelped in surprise and backed away from the pillar, whipping out his other boomerang and holding them readily. "The bloody hell was 'at?"
"Bunny? You alright?" Tooth paused to ask, surprised at her friend's sudden shout and movement ready to attack. The mini fairies peeped.
"Vhy are you-" North started, bemused at Bunny's strange behavior.
...Why is he hopping around a pillar with his boomerangs out like that like he is facing off some mortal enemy? the Russian thought and was going to say, only to be cut off when he felt something tap his shoulder. He turned, raising a bushy eyebrow. There was... nothing?
Jack saw the hand with the bracelet once again appear, though, only to disappear right when the Guardian of Wonder had turned around like it was never there. He started to wonder to himself if he was seeing things, but it had to have been there if it had tapped him and North on the shoulder and scratched Bunnymund under the chin.
And now, it had also poked Tooth on the shoulder, so there were now three Guardians of Childhood looking around in the room in confusion, searching the floors and tables for any elves.
Sandy blinked awake, eyelids still half-shut and wary from his nap. They widened, however, when he looked up and saw the rather amusing and puzzling scene taking place before him. The only other guardian that wasn't shrieking and turning around in circles looking for MiM knows what was the winter spirit, Jack Frost, who Sandy hadn't noticed before he'd dozed off.
Sandy waved at Jack, who smiled back and raised a hand in solute.
Jack shrugged when Sandy formed a golden question mark above his head and then an arrow pointing to the other Guardians. He honestly didn't know what was happening or how to describe it. The Sandman didn't signal anything else for a moment, watching the others as Jack was quietly and amusedly, before suddenly tugging on the sleeve of the teen's sweater.
"Huh?" Jack glanced down, raising an eyebrow. His eyes widened as Sandy then made the dreamsand figure of a hand with a chain charm bracelet around the wrist, making the fingers wiggle and then making it poke mini figures of the Guardians before dissipating. "You see it too?"
Sandy nodded. Then the little man's eyes trailed upwards then broke into silent laughter, pointing above the winter teen's head.
"What?" Jack looked up. There, two hands held a plate of frosted fruitcake, tipping it upside down and- SPLAT!
"GAH! THERE'S FRUITCAKE IN MY EYE!"
"CRIKEY, WHY IS THERE PINK GLITTER GLUE ON MY BOOMERANGS?"
North yelled something in Russian, and Tooth merely stated, "I do not know what in Moon's name is going on."
Jack, Bunny, North, Tooth, and Sandy were all in states of bafflement and shock. The winter spirit wiped the cake off his face with a handkerchief that was offered by Sandy (ordinary cloth, of course), and had now joined the others in looking around for what in the name of Tsar Lunar was the culprit for all this chaos!
And then they heard someone... giggling?
There seemed to be no source of the laughter that the Guardians could see. The giggles soon broke out into echoing snickers in the room, then snorts, and then full-out-guffawing.
It was now obvious that someone (Jack didn't know who) they didn't know of had managed to get into the Workshop and mess with the Guardians of Childhood. An amused grin pulled at the corner of Jack's lips because, well, he had to admit that if whoever this was managed to pull a prank on him by dumping a frosted fruitcake onto his face, he or she was pretty good.
"Oi mate, whoever you are ya better step out where we can see ya right now!" The Guardian of Hope was looking in about every direction, ears twitching, trying with no avail to locate where the source of the laughter was. Then his eyes caught sight of innocent the winter spirit, and he snarled, clearly annoyed. "Oh great, Frostbite's here! Of course!"
All the other Guardians turned in slight surprise to see that indeed, Jack was here.
"Jack? Oh, we didn't see you come. When did you-?" Tooth was cut off as Bunnymund spoke up again accusedly.
"Well o'course we didn't - Frostbite thought all this was funny to sneak in an' mess around with us like this, dye my boomerangs" - Bunny's eye twitched - "with pink glitt'a! Ya bloody show pony, I'm gonna get-"
Bunny was cut off when the laughing filled the room again, and all other Guardians glanced back at Jack. But, greatly to their surprise, it wasn't coming from the boy, who was currently raising his hands up in sincere innocence and pressing his lips together to further emphasis the point that he didn't do anything. "Not me."
A sudden unfamiliar feminine voice spoke.
"C'mon, chill out and don't give all the credit to winter-boy, Fluffball. Plus, I was just messin' around. "
If Jack could see her, he was sure she would've been smirking as she said that. Bunny visually froze, eye twitching at the nickname while Jack silently snickered in the background. The Pooka, right now, at being called the certain nickname was more irritated than shocked. "Whoever ya are, Sheila, ya shouldn't be here and I am not a 'fluffball'!"
"But you are... a cute and fluffy rabbit!"
"WHAT?!" A certain Pooka who didn't like being called fluffy said. "I am not 'cute' nor 'fluffy'! I am a warrior Pooka-"
"Yada, yada. You're fluffy. C'mon, even lots of the fangirls say so."
"The what?" Bunny squinted one green eye while the other widened. A certain spirit of winter in the room nearly choked on his spit and broke down in laughter right then and there, but managed not to. "Oi, shut your mouth, Frostbite!"
"Okay, fluffy, sure will. Oops," Jack snickered.
The Pooka groaned. That winter bloke just had to be here to know that he didn't like being called fluffy - now Bunny just earned himself a new nickname.
North decided to speak up to stop the random nonsense about fluff and what not; he wanted to know who this person was and how she got into his Workshop without anyone knowing! He had top security for this place! "Enough of nonsense," he told the Guardian of Fun and Hope, then tilted his head up to address the unknown and still unseen other spirit. "Vho are you and how did you get in my Workshop?"
There was a pause in the air, as if the girl seemed to be considering her answer. "Well, it was actually pretty easy. You should probably check on your windows, 'cause it is pretty easy to get past your group of abominable snowmen through there."
This time it was North who froze, mentally cursing himself for his mistake and trying to awkwardly avoid the glares of most of the other Guardians.
"North!" Bunny and Tooth said simultaneously while Jack and Sandy chuckled. Jack was smirking because it was true - the windows to the Globe room were always unlocked and that was how he'd just gotten in here earlier too. It was the better entrance than the doors, which were guarded by armed yetis in and out.
"I did not know!" North defended. "I will be sure to lock them once dis situation iss handled."
"Why are you here?" Tooth tried a different approach to ask the girl.
"Yeh, why are ya here? Did ya only come here to mess with us or what?" Bunny added.
"Now that," the unseen girl stated, "is finally a good question. The answer involves all of you."
The Guardians looked at each other questioningly, wondering what the girl could mean.
"And what does that mean?" Jack spoke up, asking what was on all of their minds at the moment.
All gaped as a light glowed in the center of the room, wincing as a the bright yellow light shone brighter. Tendrils of light twisted around each other like golden ribbons, and then in a flash, a girl materialized out of nowhere from within the light. She wore a yellow blouse and white khakis rolled up to the knees, had a silver charm bracelet on one arm, had dark blonde hair, and all in all looked like an ordinary teenager. Well if ordinary people could fly and apparently become invisible and break into Nicholas St. North's high-guarded Workshop and all that.
The girl stay suspended above them in the air, raising a brow amusedly at their expressions. "What? Never seen a girl before?"
Realization came upon the Guardian of Wonder's face. "You vere the one who signaled ze lights!"
She beamed. "Darn, it's about time you guys figured it out. Great guess, North!"
North nodded. "I just figured, since you were able to be invisible and still be able to interact with objects with your hands," the Russian mused.
The girl blinked blankly. She'd been using some clear bit of sarcasm in that statement...
As if to answer her thoughts, the winter spirit closest below her at her right said, "North doesn't really get sarcasm."
"I kinda figured," she responded blatantly.
"Ya didn't answer our question," Bunnymund piped up, impatient to get to the point, mostly so the person could finally be done with it and get out of here and so that he could also get all the horrid pink glitter on his boomerangs off. He hardly knew this girl and he already was annoyed by her. Why did all teenage spirits have to be so bloody mischievous and irritating?
"Ah, the question, I almost forgot. Okay, well..."
All the Guardians waited, anticipating the answer anxiously, but it seemed the girl was making her pause rather long on purpose.
"Crikey, just answer the question already!"
The girl smirked. "Simply said, my name is Skylar, I'm the spirit of desires, known more commonly as the spirit of the Wishing Star, and you Guardians," she paused teasingly again, "-you Guardians are going to help grant the wishes of believers and fangirls who wish to meet their childhood heroes, personally."
Feel free to drop a review for the sake of the fluffy Kangaroo!
Jack: *snickers*
Me: *snickers louder then shrieks at the sudden appearance of said fluffy Kangaroo*
Bunny: I AM NOT A BLOODY-
*sudden mystical green poof of smoke*
*smoke clears to reveal that Bunny is now in his cute and fluffy mini bunny form*
Bunny: CRIKEY, MATE! WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THIS?!
*North is there, suspiciously holding a now empty vial*
Everyone excluding Bunny: *bursts into laughter*
Me: You might not be a kangaroo but yOU ARE FLUFFY! *picks up adorable little Bunny and high-fives the awesome artisan-and-Guardian-but-also-an-epic-wizard-guy-known-as-North with other hand while Jack takes pictures*
Fluffy Bunny: *deadpan expression* I hate you all.
~fi