Pitch scowled as he crumpled up the marked map. He had now lost count of how many towns they had been through the last week and there had still been no sign of either the Pooka or Jack.
He tossed the map into the trash bin next to the bench and rubbed his eyes. Pitch had finished surveying the downtown attempting to collect information while he had sent Onyx to search the park. Although, Pitch was starting to fear the Pooka was far ahead of them and halfway back to the Guardians' hideout by this point.
He folded his hands into his lap as he thought. He had been so thorough going through the routes. They could have gone onto a train and for that reason Pitch gone through each train route with a fine tooth comb. There had been only one possible train the pair could have taken at the time they had ran. Aster had to have come in this direction, there was no doubt, but it made no sense. By now, Pitch or Onyx should have heard some sighting of them by now.
The Pooka could have worn a disguised, but seeing a street magician with white hair, thanks to that wretched Pooka awakening the boy's magic, was not a common event. Someone should had seen him. Pitch's thoughts dwelled on the boy.
That part was both troublesome and intriguing. Pitch had never imagine the boy had the potential for magic of his own, although there was no telling what kind of magic Jack would obtain. Pitch had originally thought Jack would make a decent servant with the right tweaking, but if the young magician obtained real magic, he might prove more useful than Pitch thought.
"Mom, can we go back to the hospital?"
Pitch awoke from his thoughts as a young girl and her mother walked by. The scene of the girl tugging on the woman's sleeve gave Pitch a vague recollection of Emily Jane as a girl, but he quickly cast it aside.
The mother stared shocked. "You want to go back to the hospital? You've spent the last three days wanting to go home."
"I know," the girl whined, "but I want to go see the magician again!"
Pitch froze, but carefully remained still and leaned back into the bench.
The woman laughed. "Now, Honey. Jack's a patient himself, he needs time to recover too-"
The mother and child walked out of Pitch's hearing range. It took all of his willpower to not grab and shake the woman for information, but he recalled seeing a police officer not far down the street. He couldn't risk spooking the woman and getting arrested.
Pitch calmly rose from his bench and grinned smugly. It was a small town and there was only one hospital, which meant he now knew exactly where Aster and Jack were. It was time for a visit.
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Jack pulled the hoodie over his t-shirt and then went to put on his shoes. He could not wait to get out of this hospital. He had nothing against them personally, but he always avoided them if he could. Hospitals always brought back memories of when his mom died, and it had only increased since his dad's passing last year.
Jack was just thankful that he had Bunny for this trip. He proved to be enough of a distraction to not have to linger on the painful memories. Performing tricks for the kids had only further helped Jack to avoid the memories. He suddenly heard a knock on the door.
"I'm decent," Jack said as he finished tying his shoes.
Aster entered with the duffle bag swung over his shoulder. "Good, now we just need ta see Doctor Gobber."
Jack moaned. "Why? Doctor Bennett declared I'm cleared to go."
Bunny folded his arms. "On the condition that we follow Doctor Gobber's instruction on what ya should eat ta get ya back ta full health." He gently poked Jack's back and had him steered towards the door. "Come on, Kiddo. Time ta get out of here."
Jack gave a smirk as they entered the hall. Doctor Gobber was looking a pile of papers and waved at them. "Ah, there you are." He handed Bunny a chart. "I made a chart for how many calories Jack should be eating at each meal."
Bunny nodded as he read the chart over. "And is this a chart of exercises I should have him do?"
"For later," Doctor Gobber said as they approached the front desk. "Focus on getting him to a healthy weight, but then it wouldn't hurt to follow that to put some muscle on the boy."
"Once again, talking like I'm not here," Jack grumbled as he tucked his hands into the hoodie's pocket. He glanced ahead to the waiting room to ignore the idle chatter and froze dead in his tracks.
Pitch was there, sitting in a chair right next to the door and watching the room like a hawk. "Oh, crud," Jack whispered. How on earth did Pitch find them? Did he pick up their scent or something? Was he part blood hound?!
Bunny was still talking with Doctor Gobber and would have walked straight out into the room if Jack hadn't tugged him by the back of Bunny's shirt.
The Pooka stumbled and was ready to give Jack a lecture. "Jack, what are ya-"
The boy said nothing as he pointed ahead. Bunny looked and paled. "He's here."
"Yeah, I know," Jack hissed. "What do we do?"
"Who's here?"
Bunny and Jack jumped and both suddenly recalled Doctor Gobber was standing with them. "Um…" Jack said as he swallowed. There was no way to explain Pitch without making a ruckus and bringing unneeded attention to themselves. "No one, right Bu- I mean, Dad."
"Uh, yeah," Bunny replied and gave a shaky grin.
Doctor Gobber didn't seem to be buying it. He glanced over to where Pitch sat and gave a nod. "Right, we need to talk."
"What?" Jack asked as Doctor Gobber shoved both of them back into a hall and into his office. Bunny raised a confused eyebrow at Jack as Doctor Gobber shut the door behind him and crossed his arms over his chest.
"I'm taking a stab at the dark here, but I'm guessing that fella is a magic user like you two."
Bunny's jaw as the duffle bag fell off his shoulders. Jack blinked stunned as he struggled to find the words. "Magic user? You know about them?"
Doctor Gobber sighed as he then proceeded to snap his fingers and caused the small lamp on his desk to float in the air. Jack's jaw dropped as the lamp hovered in the air and suddenly drop to the ground like a stone.
"I can never get the weight for that spell right," he muttered annoyed as he stared at his fingers.
"He's a magic user!" Jack gasped as he pointed. "Bunny! He's a magic user!"
Doctor Gobber frowned and looked to Bunny. "He's a newbie isn't he?"
Bunny could barely nod as he ran a hand through his hair. "What gave us away?"
"I know a healing spell when I see one," Doctor Gobber said as he crossed his arms over his chest. "I've lost count on how many I've had to cast," he gave a laugh. "Especially on my godson, now there's a boy asking for trouble." He shook his head. "Anyway, I won't ask for details, but I take it Mister Dark and Gloom out there is trouble?"
"He's Pitch Black," Bunny replied grimly. "And I'm the Guardian E. Aster Bunnymund."
"The Pooka?" Gobber asked as he scratched his chin. "And you couldn't tell I was a magic user? Thought Pookas were bloodhounds for that sort of thing."
"I got a seal put on me, it's a long story," Bunny replied with a growl. "The short version is, he's after us, and Jack and I need ta get out of town."
"Say no more," Doctor Gobber replied with a wave of his hand. "I'll distract tall, dark and spooky while you two make a getaway."
"Thanks, but ya sure about that?" Bunny asked as Doctor Gobber headed towards the door. "Pitch isn't someone to take lightly."
"Ha! I've handled plenty of dark magic users," Doctor Gobber said with a grin and a wink. "Just wait for me to distract the bloke, then run and head for the bus station two blocks over."
"Got it and thanks," Bunny said with a nod, "but be careful."
Doctor Gobber scoffed. "Please, like I said, it's nothing compare to what my godson gets up to. This is what I do for fun!" He gave a wink before he left the office and headed to the waiting room.
"Is he really going to be okay?" Jack asked as they left the office and watched from the safety corner.
"He seems to know what he's doing," Bunny replied as he placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "We'll just have to trust his judgment."
They watched Doctor Gobber approach Pitch and folded his arms over his chest. "Ah, good, you're here, was starting to think of sending a search party out for you."
Pitch paused and suddenly realized Doctor Gobber was referring to him. "Pardon?"
"Come on, let's go see Doctor Bucket, you're way over due for your checkup," Doctor Gobber continued.
Pitch arched an eyebrow. "I believe you have me confused for someone else, I don't know a Doctor Bucket."
"Don't know him?" Doctor Gobber sucked the air between his teeth. "So, you have been skipping your pills. It's worse than I thought." He took Pitch's arm. "We better go see him now."
Pitch snarled as he attempted to break free, but was unable to stop Doctor Gobber dragging him to the side. "Unhand me! I am not a patient!"
"Now, now, don't cause a fuss or I'll have to restrain you." He took a sideway glance back at Jack and Bunny and gestured to the door.
"That's our cue," Bunny said as he yanked Jack's wrist, and they raced to the exit.
They had just made it to the door as Pitch managed to break free and choose that moment to turn. A series of curse words rang out as Jack and Bunny ran straight out of the door. Neither didn't dare stop running until they were at the bus station.
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Back inside the hospital, Pitch went to chase after them, but Doctor Gobber swifly took hold of his arm again. "You sure you don't want to see Doctor Bucket?" he asked with a wicked grin.
Pitch snarled, and looked fully tempted to tear his ear off. "I will get revenge for this!" he vowed.
"I seriously doubt it," Doctor Gobber said smugly as Pitch yanked his arm free and proceeded to give chase out the door.
Doctor Gobber chuckled to himself amused. "That should give those two enough of a head start."
Doctor Bennett frowned baffled as she approached him. "What was that all about? You seemed to be dealing with a difficult patient."
"Eh, nothing to worry about," Doctor Gobber replied with a wave of his hand. "I'm going for my coffee break." He started to hum to himself as Doctor Bennett still remained confused.
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"Two tickets on any bus leaving now!" Bunny demanded as he slammed the cash at the ticket booth.
The man jumped startled and dropped the book he was reading. "Okay, okay, hold your horses." He took the money and went over his chart. "There's one heading to Charleston, but it's getting ready to leave now-"
"Fine, we'll take it!" Bunny said as Jack uneasy kept an eye-out for Pitch.
"Why do we always have to cut these things so close?," Jack grumbled as the ticket man printed off the tickets and handed them over.
"Thanks!" Bunny replied as he grabbed the tickets and the back of Jack's shirt towards the bus.
"Hey! I'm not a ragdoll!" Jack protested, but once he saw a familiar dark figure enter the bus station, Jack forgot about complaining "Go! Go!" he urged as the two of them ran to the platform.
Bunny hastily found the bus, slammed the tickets into the driver's hand and the scrambled into the seats. Bunny and Jack both ducked their heads below the window to avoid being seen by Pitch as the bus began to move and drove out of the station.
"Do you think he saw which bus we got on?" Jack whispered as he caught his breath.
"Don't know," Bunny said as he peeked his head up to glance out the window and protectively wrapped an arm around Jack's shoulders. "We'll just have to hope he didn't for now and keep moving."
Jack gave a shaky nod as he tried to relax in his seat.
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Pitch howled with rage as he kicked over a trash bin. Again! Those two managed to escape on a bus again! He tugged at his hair, resisting the urge to pull it out, and forced himself to take deep breaths.
He had to remain calm. This much stress wasn't good for his blood pressure. Pitch's hands shook, dying to strangle any neck he could find, as he reached into his coat and popped the cork off the bottle of his life elixir. Pitch swallowed a mouthful to stop his heart from racing and wiped the remains off his lips. His heart gradually returned to normal as the elixir took effect.
"Master!" a familiar voice cried.
Pitch slowly turned as Onyx ran towards him. "I saw you running here as I came out of the park. Did you find them, Master?"
Pitch hissed and yanked on Onyx's shirt collar. "Your timing is as useless as your brain!"
"S-sorry, Master," Onyx stammered.
Pitch sighed as he let Onyx go. "Fetch the car and bring it here while I find out which town that bus is headed to. We can't let them get too far ahead of us."
Onyx gave a nervous bow and nearly tripped over the fallen trash bin as he ran to get the car.