The cover art is drawn by me.
10. Collisions
The Sandman flew into the woods, moulding his dreamsand into a stingray, which he then used as a steed. The rather harmless-looking man who had ran after Sandy was changing into something much less harmless. Even as the man ran his body morphed, his clothes tearing and his muscles twitching oddly. Sandy had never seen this man in action. He had only heard of Bruce Banner and the freak accident that had created the green monster the man could turn into. The man roared, his transformation complete, and ploughed through a thicket of trees Sandy had just passed by. Sandy heard crashes behind him and regretted the needless destruction of his surroundings. But he needed to get this man away from the car and its driver.
Sandy knew things hadn't gone according to plan. He had sensed Nightmares and what was worse, Fearlings in the direction of the base North and Bunnymund had gone to. Sandy was sure it would lead to a fight, and these agents would probably not discriminate between invisible shadows and possibly visible strangers that seemed to attack at the same time. Sandy had a sneaking suspicion this was what Pitch was counting on. The Guardians definitely didn't need an enraged Hulk into that mix as well.
He had to press against the sandy surface of the stingray when an entire tree trunk was flung at him. It sailed harmlessly over his head, crashing into another tree with enough force to break off most of the tree's branches. Sandy swerved sharply to the left and quickly conjured up a dream bird that slammed itself against the green monster's face. It would have put a normal person to sleep, but it seemed this green beast was running so high on adrenaline that it did nothing to him. Banner merely roared in irritation and quickened his already impressive running speed, taking huge leaps and stretching out his massive arms to make a grab at the fleeing Sandy.
Sandy steered the stingray upwards, forming a whip out of sand and snapping it at the Hulk's fingers. It gave him enough of a distraction to dive between two thick trees and reach a clearing he had been going for. He stopped in mid-air, letting the stingray melt into golden sparks and turned to face the direction he had just come from. He didn't need to wait for long before the green monster crashed through the two large trees like they were made of wet paper and lunged right away at his real target. Sandy moved quickly out of the way, snapping his whip to keep the beast at bay. He formed another strand of dreamsand to his yet free hand, feeling like a lion tamer facing an exceptionally strange lion. And he had a feeling this beast wouldn't be easy to tame. Not by a stranger like Sandy, at least. And especially since this beast certainly didn't want to be tamed right now. Sandy knew the hulking man that swinging huge arms at him wasn't nearly as out of control as the man's behaviour would suggest. Sandy could see in Banner's fierce eyes that the man knew what he was doing. He was just being very unrestrained about it.
The Hulk tore a tree off the ground again and chucked it right at Sandy with the force of a catapult. Sandy ducked under it and then rose higher out of the man's reach, pelting the man with small dreams that should have at least slowed him down. Banner wiped his face angrily and actually punched a golden sand-horse that charged at him. Sandy's creations fell apart, turning back into sand. Banner stopped to blink, and Sandy had a feeling he might be able to bring the man down after all. He would just need a lot of dreamsand. Once the man was calmer, they might be able to talk. Maybe.
Jack raced through the corridors, occasionally running through and agent and fighting against the urge to gasp in discomfort whenever he did so. He was following the small tags above the doors that seemed to indicate he was getting close to some sort of research area. If these people really had his staff, they most likely wanted to study it. Or they had stored it somewhere he couldn't get to. He hoped that was not the case. He needed to find it fast if he wanted to have a chance at fighting Pitch's minions that were attacking the place.
He burst into a room with laboratory equipment on numerous desks. After taking a good look around the place and seeing his beloved shepherd's crook wasn't there he turned on his heel and continued onwards, checking the rest of the rooms as he went. After he had run into that female agent no one had tried to stop him. Most of the people were probably outside by now or in surveillance rooms trying to find the source of the attacks with their devices. Jack wasn't sure at the moment if it had been a bad idea not to tell these people about Pitch. At least then they would have had an idea of what to expect. Even without being seen or tangible to these people, Pitch would surely find ways to harm them. But Jack hadn't really imagined Pitch being interested in something like this. At least not enough to outright attack them.
Now that he thought about it, why hadn't he imagined that?
Jack arrived at a large open space that housed cars and other vehicles. It was a dead end for him. The only other doors were huge and seemed be remote-controlled. So Jack had just gone through the entire research area and hadn't found his staff. That wasn't good. He needed a new plan. He turned back towards the door but froze when he felt the ominous presence of Nightmares behind him. He spun back around and saw back sand and shadows oozing from underneath the huge metal doors that led outside. The black substance solidified into a fierce warhorse and three small, shrivelled humanoid shapes Jack had only seen once before. A Nightmare and Fearlings. Just his luck.
The Nightmare whinnied in a distorted voice and leaped. Jack dropped down flat onto his stomach and rolled out of the way of demonic hooves. Jack was back up before the horse had time to turn and he jumped, landing onto the roof of the nearest car. The Fearlings scrambled up along the car doors, leaving deep claw-marks into the metal. S.H.I.E.L.D. wouldn't like that. Whatever insurance they might have most likely didn't cover damage done by supernatural fear-monsters. Jack aimed a quick kick at the first Fearling that got up onto the roof and sent it flying back down onto the concrete floor. The next one lunged at him right away, and Jack jumped over it, the force of the jump carrying him all the way to the next car roof. Temporarily out of his enemies' reach he concentrated, forming a snowball into his other hand and an ice spike into the other.
"Okay," he said and even managed his usual grin despite knowing the odds were against him, "You want to play?"
Jack threw the snowball at a Fearling and watched the monster smack against the windshield of a car. He wasted no time going after it, jumping forward and stabbing the ice spike right through the monster's inky stomach. The Fearling screamed, fading away into tatters of shadow. One down. Three to go. Those victorious thoughts were sadly silenced when Jack felt sharp claws at his back. He was slammed against the car, his face pressing against the windshield that was now cracked from being struck with an icicle. Jack elbowed the Fearling at his back, wildly shaking it off and scrambling away from it and trying to catch his breath. His back burned and his head spun. He was definitely not in a good fighting condition.
Jack involuntarily let out a yelp when the Nightmare's hoof stomped on his shoulder. The horse let out another unnatural whinny that turned into a strange sandy garble when something large and metallic smashed it into pieces. Jack blinked and watched as whatever had destroyed the Nightmare hit the wall with enough force to dent it and then returned like a boomerang, swiping a Fearling out of existence on its way.
"Are you okay?" a thunderous voice boomed at Jack's left, and Jack turned to look at his rescuer.
The man was wearing Norse armour and caught the flying hammer in his hand like it barely weighed anything. Long blonde hair framed an ageless face with bright eyes. Jack stared at the man in disbelief. He had to admit he definitely hadn't expected to see the God of Thunder here.
"Old man Thor?" Jack said uncertainly, "What are you doing here?"
Thor seemed to only now realize who Jack was, and suddenly the man looked just as surprised as Jack was feeling at the moment.
"Jokul Frosti?" Thor breathed, using the old Scandinavian version of Jack's name out of habit, "So they really did pick you as a Guardian!"
The last remaining Fearling decided to take that moment of distraction and use it to attack Thor. It moved in a flash, its clawed hands extended and the malformed mouth twisted into a battle screech. Jack was closer to it, though, and he moved almost without thinking. He tackled the creature before its jump could reach the God of Thunder. The monster's claws sunk into Jack's shoulders, but Jack ignored it and pressed the creature against the floor with his elbow, slamming his other hand on the screaming face. The Fearling froze in mid-scream, ice spreading from Jack's hand throughout the corrupted body, immobilizing the joints and covering the shadow with frost. Jack got back to his feet, dragging the now stiff Fearling up with him and flung the monster against the wall. The creature shattered, and Jack was too tired and too peeved to feel much sympathy for the poor thing.
Thor raised a brow and lifted his hammer to rest on his broad shoulder.
"Impressive," he stated.
Jack smiled wearily.
"Thanks. And thanks for helping me. But I'd still want to know what you're doing here."
"I was called here to assist in a problem with your people, Jokul. Now could you explain what is happening here?"
Jack crossed his arms. He didn't have much of an opinion on Thor. They had only met a couple of times. But the man had just helped him. That definitely granted him some bonus points.
"It's Pitch," Jack said, "You know, the Nightmare King."
Thor frowned.
"What about your companions? I saw some of them outside, fighting the men here. And I heard Sanderson just attacked Mr. Banner not too far away from here."
Jack's eyes widened. The Guardians were here too? He really should have got out before things got this much out of hand.
"I'm pretty sure the Guardians are just here to get me back and fight Pitch," he said, "If you want to help, you could maybe take me to them? And help me find my staff?"
Thor looked a bit conflicted about the situation. He lowered his hammer back to his side.
"I do not know. I have no idea where your weapon is. It is chaos out there and I cannot trust you in the middle of it."
"What?" Jack snapped, "Pitch is out there! It's the Guardians' job to fight him! I'm not going to just stand around doing nothing!"
"You are injured. And if you go, these men will try to take you down as well," Thor said evenly, "I heard them. They do not seem to think highly of you."
Jack laughed nervously.
"Yeah. I guess I could work on my first impressions."
"I think everyone in Asgard would agree with that."
Jack rolled his eyes. Thor didn't have to bring that up every time they met.
"C'mon, old man," Jack looked at the man with the best puppy dog look he could muster, "I have to get out of here! If I stay it'll just get worse. Now these people have two immortal groups to deal with, and the Guardians won't quit until they get me out."
He was rather sure that Thor was pretty much immune to puppy dog eyes, but what the God of Thunder wasn't immune to was reality. Even Thor must see that siding with the Guardians in a situation involving a Fearling-army was the best way to go.
"Perhaps," Thor said slowly, "I could indeed accompany you, young Frosti. Do you have any idea where your staff might be located?"
Jack almost wanted to jump in joy.
"Finally there's someone with some common sense in this place!"
It was madness. Total chaos. They had been supposed to just go in, maybe cause a distraction and then get North to talk to Fury. But now Pitch had ruined it all and Bunnymund was left fighting tooth and nail with both shadows and agents. Bunnymund had hopped all across the battlefield with blinding speed, throwing his boomerangs and egg bombs so many times his arms almost ached. There were two arrows lodged into his shoulder, courtesy of that bow-wielding agent with a killer shot. He didn't have time to pull them out. There were Nightmares and Fearlings everywhere, and some of the agents seemed to have lost their composure over invisible attackers. Because Bunnymund had quickly come to the conclusion that these people didn't see Pitch's minions. At least not yet. They might soon if the shadows continued their little spree of vandalism. Bunnymund almost hoped that would happen now. At least then the agents could focus on something else rather than targeting only him. And seeing what they were fighting would probably calm the agents down a bit as well.
The agent with the bow seemed to be the greatest threat at the moment. Bunnymund could recognize the man as one of the Avengers -group he was supposed to be distracting. The metal man and the overly patriotically dressed man were nowhere in sight. Bunnymund didn't know if they were still indoors. He hoped North could deal with that. Bunnymund wouldn't be able to get inside to aid his friend any time soon.
Bunnymund leaped over an arrow that had been meant to kill and tossed an egg bomb to conceal him while he focused on a practically nasty Fearling that seemingly tried to melt through cracks in the concrete wall to get into the building. Bunny threw his boomerang, and it tore through the creature and caused it to shrivel into shreds of darkness. Another arrow fizzled over Bunnymund's head, nicking his ear. Bunnymund cursed and caught his boomerang as it returned.
"Oi! Gimme a break!" he shouted at the bowman who was now considerably closer than a moment ago.
The agent seemed to be quite okay with the fact that there was a seven-foot-tall, talking rabbit in front of him and fired an arrow that hit the wall behind Bunnymund and exploded. Bunnymund felt the explosion burning his fur and the shockwave sent him tumbling forward to the ground. He caught himself at the last second, straightening back up and throwing a boomerang at the bowman's face. The agent dodged it, already fitting yet another arrow to the string of his bow.
Bunnymund caught his boomerang again and threw himself to the side with rabbit-like agility when the man fired. He rolled on the ground, ignoring the burning of the arrows still in his shoulder and tossed another exploding egg. He didn't have time to see if he had actually hit anything, because then his concentration was occupied by a nightmare that very nearly trampled him.
"Okay, a bit too much everything," he grumbled to himself as he kicked the Nightmare out of the way and jumped to his hind paws with the same momentum.
He looked for the bowman on the battlefield and saw the man aiming at him again. He also saw a large Fearling lunging through the air to get at the man from behind.
"GET DOWN!" Bunnymund roared instinctively, throwing his boomerang straight at the attacking shadow beast. His priority was to keep the people safe, even if said people were trying to stick him full of arrows and lead. The agent looked confused, but still ducked to avoid Bunnymund's boomerang. The weapon hit the Fearling and sliced it in two. The bowman looked over his shoulder briefly, and when his eyes widened Bunnymund could tell the man saw the shadowy attackers too now.
"That's right!" Bunnymund shouted, "They're the real threat here right now! Ya can fight'em if ya just keep calm!"
The bowman quickly fired to the side, the arrow sinking into an approaching Fearling's throat. The creature withered away. Bunnymund's spirits lifted at that just a bit. Maybe there was some hope to this after all. He should know; he was the Guardian of it.
Golden man was playing games with him. He didn't like it. Golden man had whips that surprisingly hurt. And golden man could somehow make him feel sluggish. Sand that golden man wielded clouded vision, drained energy. But he didn't want to rest. He needed to smash golden man that looked infuriatingly calm even in fight.
He got yet more sand into his eyes. It didn't sting like it should have. But it broke through the rage he wanted to use against golden man. It caused flashes of pleasant images that he quickly ignored and focused just on golden man. Golden man was target. Who golden man was, it didn't matter. Golden man had attacked and now he would attack back.
He kept telling himself that in his clearer moments because if he stopped, he would realize how badly he just wanted to rest. He would realize how calm golden man actually made him feel.
The green man let out yet another murderous growl as he swiped a massive arm at Sandy. The hit almost landed. Almost. Sandy jumped over it and wrapped his whip around Banner's wrist. He tugged the whip sharply, and instead of flinging the green beast into the bushes, it was Sandy who was flung onto the green man's shoulders. Just as Sandy had hoped. A huge fist tried to punch Sandy off, but Sandy stepped aside, jumping over the man's head and onto another overly muscled shoulder. He sprinkled dreamsand over the man's face, watching wild eyes dull in fatigue for a second before it was gone again. How fascinating.
Banner's fist caught Sandy on the shoulder, and Sandy felt the hit that was something akin to colliding with a brick wall. He slipped off from the green shoulder, but stayed airborne and countered Banner's next punch with a flick of his whip. The man seemed very resistant to pain and all kings of damage. Sandy knew trading punches would get them nowhere. Neither of them could be defeated by that, and they would just keep going on and on until one of them got bored of that game. Sandy knew it would be him. Luckily it was also him who had the means to finally end it. He just needed to breach that shell of anger and calm the green man down even if it was against the man's will.
He readied a ball of dreamsand again.
It fell and scattered from his hand when a burning beam hit him in the back of his head. Momentarily disoriented but not really hurt, Sandy looked for the source of the new attack. It was higher up in the air, gleaming red and gold. The metal man who had taken young Jack.
"Okay, who the hell are you supposed to be?" the newcomer asked.
Sandy pursed his lips and frowned. The green man aimed a punch at Sandy's back, but Sandy managed to move out of the way without problems. The metal man – Stark, if Sandy remembered correctly – sped towards them with the force of some sort of rockets at his suit. The green man spared a glance at Stark and grunted in greeting. Sandy chose this moment to aim a new barrage of dreams at the green man. They hit the man's face, and he sputtered in surprise.
Stark looked at the fading dreams and then directed his masked face at Sandy.
"Unicorns?" he asked in disbelief, "Seriously, who are you supposed to be?"
Sandy formed a picture of sleeping children and wiggled his fingers, creating a few more dreams in explanation. The others didn't seem to get it. The green man lunged at Sandy again, moving a bit more sluggishly than before. The red and golden man shrugged his metal-covered shoulders and decided to join the fight. Sandy sighed silently. Now he had two stubborn, rebellious children in his hands.
Stark fired another beam of light, which wasn't very difficult for a seasoned fighter to avoid. Too bad that Banner had decided to try and trample Sandy almost at that same moment seeing how Sandy was now rather close to the ground. Sandy avoided the beam and then threw a hastily formed dream – one he would never call good enough to make it into a child's mind – at the charging Banner's face before shooting upwards into the air. The green man stumbled to a stop when his target left his reach, again wiping his face in irritation. Sandy could see him swaying on his feet a bit.
"You okay there, big guy?" Stark asked.
Banner growled something barely coherent in response and again shook his head violently. Sandy dove back towards the ground and Stark shot at him again. This time multiple times, one of the projectiles grazing the points of Sandy's hair. It was getting very annoying for Sandy, to be honest. It was time to put these children to their place.
Sandy flung his whip forward and it wrapped around Stark's arm. With a flick of Sandy's wrist, Stark was sent flying towards the ground. Sandy's other whip caught Banner around the wide forehead, and Sandy pulled himself again close to the green man's face. Stark hit the ground just when Sandy let him go, metal clanging against rocks and Stark shouting in what was probably annoyance. Banner tried to swat Sandy away like Sandy was a very persistent fly, but Sandy would have none of that any more. A huge dream dolphin crashed against Banner's face, causing the giant of a man to stagger back and slump to the ground, breathing heavily and eyelids drooping. Sandy wasted no time creating more dreams. He weaved the most calming thoughts he could manage into them. They all descended upon the raging green beast, lulling him into a state of serenity, almost tipping him over the edge of sleep. For a normal person, it would have been over three weeks' dose of dreamsand. But now it was just barely enough to return the green beast into the form of a man. Sandy watched the monster wane, muscles decreasing in size and green shifting back to slight tan.
Bruce Banner didn't say anything for a long while. It was Stark who broke the silence with the quiet humming of his suit, getting back up and rising up into the air. Sandy turned sharply towards the man and raised his hand warningly. Stark crossed his arms.
"Did you just defeat the Hulk with a dolphin?" he asked.
"It was a dream," Banner said drowsily, "He creates dreams. I don't know how, but he does."
Sandy nodded fiercely, creating more images he hoped would be understood. He had needed to keep Banner away, he said. The base was in chaos. They just wanted their own back.
"You're the Sandman, aren't you?" Stark concluded, again sounding like he barely believed what he himself just said, "That was one of the names Frost-kid apparently gave in the interrogation."
Sandy nodded and pointed at himself. Then he became serious, angry even. If these people had hurt young Jack... well, Sandy knew violence would solve nothing in this, but he surely wouldn't be pleasant towards these people. Stark raised his hand, the glowing beam-weapon charged and ready to shoot. Sandy readied a ball of dreamsand in case the man really was stupid enough to continue the fight.
"Wait, Tony!" Banner said suddenly, "Don't you dare shoot that thing! Are you saying S.H.I.E.L.D. kidnapped a kid? Fury didn't mention anything about that."
Yes, they kidnapped our boy, Sandy mimed and even created the whole sentence in cursive writing over his head, and we want him back. We don't want to fight you.
"Then why are you attacking us?" Stark asked.
Because we suspected you wouldn't want to talk. We needed you away from Mr. Fury to actually get to talk to him.
"Well, he does have a point there," Banner said.
"Hey!" Stark snapped indignantly, "That kid attacked me in my own home! What were we supposed to think about that?"
Sandy crossed his arms and looked at Stark very sharply. Stark sighed tinnily into his helmet.
"Why do I always have to deal with the weird ones?"
Banner rose gingerly to his feet. Sandy glanced warily at the man, but was surprised to see a weary smile on the man's face.
"Sorry about him," he said, nodding towards Stark, "And sorry about all of... this. Tony, put your hand down."
"What?" Stark asked flatly.
"Put it down," Banner repeated, "I don't think this guy wants to hurt us."
I definitely don't.
"See?"
"What makes you so ready to believe this guy all of a sudden?" Stark inquired.
Banner looked at Sandy with an unreadable expression on his face. The man wiped sweat from his brow and took a deep breath.
"I don't even know," he admitted, "But he makes me feel calm."
Stark laughed a little at that, and Sandy smiled widely at them both.
Nick Fury had been afraid this would happen. He had practically been expecting it. But it had still taken them all by surprise. The beings they had worked so hard to locate were now trying to break through their defences. They were apparently doing a good job at it too seeing how they had managed to break windows and apparently cause some of the agents get much more nervous than their training should have allowed. Most of the agents were by now outside save for those who were trying to adjust cameras to actually see the attackers.
Fury hurried along a corridor, a gun in his hand, and almost bumped into Rogers, who hadn't even had time to change out of his Fifties' shirt and into his Captain America -uniform. The man carried his stars-and-stripes shield firmly in his hand, though.
"Rogers?" Fury said questioningly, "What are you doing here? I thought you were outside."
Rogers blinked as if only now realizing Fury was there.
"Some of them are inside as well. Clint is doing fine outside and he said he saw some slip in here."
Fury quickly checked his surroundings, not really getting what Rogers was talking about. It all looked clear, but then again, one couldn't really trust their eyes too much these days.
"I think there are a lot of creatures here that we can't see," Rogers explained in a very serious tone of voice, "Clint said that he suddenly saw a bunch of shadows attacking the place. I think I glimpsed one or two in here after that."
"Great..." Fury muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand, "Rogers, check the interior the best you can and fight off whatever's not supposed to be here."
Rogers nodded and ran to the opposite direction from Fury, who continued on in his own way. He needed to find Hill.
He was halfway to the room where Hill was supposed to be when he came face to face with a large man in a heavy fur coat. The man had just stepped around the corner and now regarded Fury with intense blue eyes.
"Ah, Nicholas Fury!" the man boomed, "How lucky! You are just the man I wanted to talk to!"
The man had a long, white beard and bushy eyebrows and he looked pretty much like how media liked to depict Santa Claus. Except that Santa Claus usually didn't wield two massive sabres or speak with a thick Russian accent.
Author's Note: This will be a longer A/N. Just a heads-up. First of all, over 200 reviews? I don't know what to say, except THANK YOU! You guys are so awesome!
So I had to take a little break from this for two reasons. One: school and other stuff to do. Two: I reached the point that I usually reach in every creative thing that I try to do; the point when I decide that everything I have done is absolute crap and should be destroyed in a fire... So I took a little break from this and then stepped back and reread everything I'd posted so far and decided it wasn't quite as terrible after all and decided I had the next chapter figured out well enough to do the final edits and post it! So while I did this I also fixed some spelling errors I had missed before in almost every chapter and rewrote some sentences. I didn't change the actual content so you don't have to reread in fear of being confused.
I also drew some cover art like I already pointed out in the beginning of this chapter! TONY! Why is your suit so hard to draw and why can't you get into a dynamic fighting pose? I would have wanted all of the Guardians and the Avengers in the cover, but it would have been too crowded for the picture size on this site so I just decided to go with a scene from chapter 5 because drawing long, skinny legs is always fun. The picture is drawn with colour pencils and markers.
Next thing: mythology stuff. So Thor and Jack met up in this chapter and so many people seemed to be expecting it and also expected Thor to call Jack Jokul Frosti which I at first was actually planning not to do. But then I did some quick research and yeah, it does fit so there you go. According to my research, Jokul Frosti was actually not a god, (the son of one, granted) but a sprite. I'd figure it's kinda like a lesser god-creature. Not that it matters that much in this story but it was interesting.
On a similar note, Jack calling Thor "old man" can be taken as Jack just joking about Thor's age, but it's actually another mythology reference. You see, in Finnish mythology the God of Thunder is named Ukko, which literally means "old man" in Finnish. It is also a legit first name and a rather popular one even today. For bonus points in terms of this fic, in RotG's Finnish dub Jack's name was Ukko as well. In that case it came from Pakkasukko (which was his full spirit-name in the film). It's a combination of pakkanen (it means frost, as in freezing temperatures... not in any other meaning of frost.Seriously, I like English so much but it has very limited vocabulary when it comes to wintry things) and ukko. It's probably the most well-known name for a winter spirit in Finland and it usually refers to the Russian spirit of winter who brings gifts to Russian Greek Catholics (Orthodox) around new year.
Okay... long, pointless ramble over.