Chapter 6: Trick or Treat
Running through the tunnels that seemed to burrow for miles through the earth, Jack couldn't help but worry that they had gotten turned around somewhere.
"Are you certain we are heading in the right direction?" Jack called out from his position near the back of the group of Guardians, who were all currently moving as fast as they could through one of Bunny's tunnels.
"Of course, mate!" Bunny called back from the front of the group, "We just take the left turn of Albuquerque and straight on to home!"
Jack was ready to say something further, but his words died in his nonexistent throat as the tunnel came to an end and the Guardians found themselves standing in a large cavern covered in lush plant life.
"Ah," Bunny sighed as he placed his hands on his hips and looked around, "No place like home."
"My, this is quite impressive," Jack commented as he looked around with wide eye sockets, "And do these tunnels run all over the world?"
"Yep," Bunny confirmed with a nod as the Guardians made their way deeper into the cavern, "It's how I deliver all the eggs on Easter."
"Okay, so if the Bad Guardians are here, where exactly would they go?" Frost inquired as he looked around.
Before anyone could answer, a loud crash echoed through the cavern. Together, the Guardians looked in the direction the sound had come from, grim expressions on their faces.
"I suppose that answers that question," Frost commented.
"Come on!" North shouted, waving the other Guardians on as he began running in the direction the sound had come from.
A few minutes earlier,
In a different part of the cavern, a large, gnarled willow tree stood in a secluded glade, its drooping branches covered in vibrant green leaves, while its long roots broke through the hard ground, wrapping around the large rocks that littered the area. A number of these rocks had been carved in the shape of large eggs, on which simple faces had been cut along with swirling designs. A thin layer of grass grew on the cavern floor and a hole in the ceiling allowed a single ray of sunlight to shine in, the light falling onto the base of the willow tree. A stillness hung in the air, broken only by the sound of Samhain, Krampus, Lock, Shock and Barrel walking towards the tree.
"Why did we come here?" Lock questioned as he looked around in confusion.
"We are here to free our dear sister, Eostre," Samhain answered as they passed into the shaft of light, causing them to cast long shadows onto the trunk of the willow tree.
"But where is she?" Shock inquired as she looked around in confusion, "All I see is a dumb-looking tree."
"Obviously, you need to look a little bit closer," Samhain replied as he beckoned the trio forward.
Lock, Shock and Barrel glanced at each other hesitantly before they collectively shrugged and moved towards Samhain. Stepping in front of him, the trio looked at Samhain expectantly, only for him to gesture towards the willow. Turning their attention to where Samhain was indicating, the trio was just able to make out the vague shape of something in the bark of the tree.
"Is that a….face?" Barrel inquired as he narrowed his eyes.
Indeed, while at a glance it could be dismissed as knots in the wood, if one looked close enough at the trunk, one could see the elegant curves and shapes of a beautiful woman's face.
"Indeed it is," Samhain confirmed with a nod, "The face of our sister."
"She's a tree?" Lock questioned in confusion.
"For now," Krampus confirmed, "Until we free her."
"How are you going to do that?" Shock inquired.
"Krampus and I will handle that," Samhain answered as he and Krampus took up positions in front of the tree.
"So, why are we here?" Barrel asked.
"You're here to deal with the guardians," Krampus explained.
"You mean like Jack and his friends?" Shock inquired.
As she spoke, there was the sudden noise of stone grinding on stone. Looking around in confusion, the trio of trick-or-treaters eventually noticed that the large, egg-shaped statues that sat near the tree had begun to move. As they watched, chicken-like legs and feet made of stone sprouted from the bottom of the statues, allowing them to rise up and start moving towards the group.
"Not quite," Samhain answered as the three statues approached them.
"What are we supposed to do against those!?" Lock questioned as the trick-or-treaters recoiled in terror.
"Normally, you would die," Krampus explained with a shrug, "But my brother and I have decided that you three are deserving of presents. Is Christmastime, after all."
"Presents!?" the trick-or-treaters questioned in unison as they turned to look at Krampus.
"Yes," Krampus confirmed with a nod before he began quickly rummaging through his bag, "For Lock, I have a Little Hellion's Hellfire Slingshot. Do not be using this indoors. You'll put your eye out."
As he spoke, Krampus handed Lock a slingshot that appeared to be made out of burnt wood, with a fiery orange strap and coal black cup. Taking the slingshot, Lock pulled back on it experimentally, causing a small fireball to form in the cup. Seeing this, Lock's eyes went wide and he giggled in delight.
"For Shock," Krampus continued as he rummaged through his bag again, "I have a Turbo Tornado Flying Broomstick. Don't operate it if you've taken cough syrup."
A moment later, Krampus handed Shock a broomstick that was roughly as long as she was tall. The handle was bent in such a way that it looked like it was designed for someone to sit on it, and the stiff, straw bristles seemed to sway in some unfelt breeze. Taking the broomstick, Shock quickly straddled it, prompting the broomstick to start hovering a foot or so off the ground. Whooping with delight, Shock flew the broomstick in a quick circle, causing a small whirlwind to kick up and travel a short distance away before dissipating.
"And for Barrel," Krampus said as he pulled another item out of his bag, "I have a Bag of Bones Mystery Sack."
With that, Krampus handed Shock a small burlap sack with a drawstring tie. Taking the bag, Shock opened the bag and reached in before pulling out a skull a moment later. Holding the skull in his palm, Shock looked at it with wide eyes before the skull began cackling, its jaw flapping open and closed as it did.
"And I have a gift for you as well," Samhain said before he raised an arm and pointed his open palm at the trio. As he did, the trick-or-treaters' shadows began to twist and writhe in an unnatural way before they rose out of the ground. A moment later, they formed creatures made of Samhain's shadow stuff, each taking on a unique form. Lock's shadow became a towering demon with cloven hooves, curved horns and armed with a pitchfork. Shock's shadow transformed into a hunchback crone with a hooked, wart-covered nose, spindly fingers ending in sharp nails, and a wide mouth full of pointed teeth. Finally, Barrel's shadow twisted into the form of a skeletal warrior, dressed in chainmail and wielding a curved sword and round shield.
"Children," Krampus said, bringing the trick-or-treaters' attention back to him before he gestured at the egg statues, which had begun lumbering towards the group, "Now that you have new toys, it's time to play."
Turning their attention towards the statues as well, the trio all grinned menacingly before taking out their Halloween masks and slipping them on, cackling madly as they charged towards the statues, their monstrous shadows trailing along behind them.
A short while later, the Guardians came running into the cave, coming to a stop at the entrance as they took a moment to observe the scene before them. Krampus and Samhain were currently standing before the old willow, their arms raised above their head with their concentration focused entirely on the tree. Between them and the Guardians of the Sabbat, the cave floor was strewn with the broken remains of the egg statues, upon which were perched Lock, Shock and Barrel laughing amongst themselves.
"Oh, that's just great!" Bunny grumbled as he gestured at the broken statues while glaring at the trio, "Do you brats have any idea how long it took to make those things!?"
"Nope!" Shock declared as she and the others hopped to their feet, "But it sure was fun breaking them!"
"Though not as fun as kicking your butts will be!" Barrel added as he reached into his bag and pulled out a long femur.
"Yeah, it's going to be a blast!" Lock cackled as he pulled back the cup of his slingshot, causing a fireball to form.
"Vhat ees zees?" North demanded angrily as he glared at where Samhain and Krampus stood, "Zey send cheeldren to fight us?"
"These are no mere children," Jack countered as he watched the trick-or-treaters wearily, "Don't forget. Lock, Shock and Barrel are the ones who kidnapped you."
"And me," Bunny admitted grudgingly as he pulled out a pair of boomerangs and lowered himself into a fighting stance, "And those statues weren't push overs either. I think we should be careful with these little anklebiters."
"Agreed," Tooth concurred with a nod of her head as she clenched her hands into fists, "And I'm thinking that Samhain and Krampus may have prepared them to fight us."
"What gave it away?" Frost questioned as he readied his staff, "The magic toys?"
"And the fact that their shadows are moving," Tooth replied tensely.
His brow furrowing in confusion, Jack looked at the trio's shadows before his eyes went wide in surprise as they rose up and took on their monstrous forms.
"I suppose that makes things a little more complicated," Frost admitted with a nod.
"Let's get 'em!" Shock shouted, pointing at the Guardians of Childhood before hopping onto her broom and shooting into the air.
"I'll take her!" Tooth announced before she took off after Shock.
Frost glanced up at Tooth as she left but his attention was pulled away by a loud cackle. Looking towards the source of the cackle, Frost's eyes widened in surprise as he found Shock's crone-shaped shadow lunging at him, its clawed hands stretched out towards him. With shocking speed, Frost dodged out of the way, shooting out of the crone's reach, prompting her to chase after him.
At the same time, Lock's demonic shadow charged at the rest of the Guardians. Drawing a pair of swords from the confines of his coat, North met the demon head on, using his swords to parry the shadow's thrust with its pitchfork. Pushing the pitchfork to the side, North let the demon's momentum carry it past him before he slashed it across the back with one of his swords. Snarling in fury, the demon spun to face North, who readied himself for the shadow's next attack.
While North fought with the demon, the skeleton rushed at the Guardians as well, only to be met by Jack, who nimbly hopped into the air and delivered a roundhouse kick to the skeleton's face. The blow seemed to stun the skeleton for a moment, but it quickly recovered and lashed out at Jack with its sword, forcing him to dodge by backflipping away.
"Can't we talk about this?" Jack inquired as the shadow advanced on him, sword at the ready, "Skeleton to skeleton?"
Wordlessly, the skeleton warrior rushed at Jack.
"I guess not," Jack said with a shrug before he rushed forward to meet his attacker.
Cackling madly, Lock pulled back on his slingshot, causing another fireball to form in the cup before launching it at Sandy and Bunny. Reacting quickly, Sandy waved his hand, causing a brick wall made of sand to form in front of him and Bunny, which took the brunt of the fireball, the blast causing the wall to collapse back into grains of sand.
Before the smoke of the blast cleared, a hole formed in the ground in front of where the wall of sand had been standing a moment before. Leaping out of the hole, Bunny pulled his arm back before hurling a boomerang at Lock's face. His eyes widening in surprise, Lock had no time to dodge the oncoming boomerang and yelped in surprise while reflexively covering his face with his arms. However, before it could strike him, something flew into the side of the boomerang, knocking it off course and sending it whizzing past Lock's head.
Blinking in surprise, Bunny turned his attention towards where the other projectile had come from, and watched as Barrel snatched a femur out of the air as it twirled back to him, his other holding the bag of bones Krampus had given to him.
"Silly rabbit," Barrel taunted, "Two can play at that game."
"You're playing against a master, tin lid," Bunny spat, offhandedly grabbing his boomerang out of the air as he glared at Barrel, "Better quit while you're ahead."
"Nah, I've got a few more tricks up my sleeves," Barrel countered as he returned the bone to his bag and began rummaging around in it. A moment later, Barrel pulled out a skull, which let out a high pitched cackle as green lights glowed in its eye sockets. Laughing as well, Barrel hurled the skull, which rocketed forward at a frightening speed, leaving a trail of green smoke in its wake.
His eyes widening in surprise, Bunny only had time to watch as the skull shot towards him before it exploded into a cloud of green smoke. The force of the blast knocked Bunny clear off of his feet and sent him flying through the air before he slammed into the cave wall. Grunting in pain, Bunny slid down onto his hands and knees, before lifting his head and glaring at Barrel, who was grinning wickedly back at him. Gritting his teeth, Bunny pushed himself back to his feet and rushed back into battle.
Hopping backwards, Frost managed to avoid the hag's long, sharp nails as she swept her hand at his face. Pressing her advantage, the hag continued to rush Frost while raking at him, but the Guardian managed to dodge her attacks at every turn. Reaching one of the cave walls, Frost planted his foot against the stone before using the leverage to flip over the hag's head. The hag, who had been charging at Frost, now had too much momentum to stop herself and slammed face first into the cave wall before she stumbled back after bouncing off the stone.
With his opponent stunned, Frost looped his crook around the hag's neck as he landed behind her before using it to flip the shadow over his shoulder and slam her against the ground. As the hag struggled to pick herself up, Frost leapt into the air, flipping forward before landing hard on the shadow's back, driving the butt of his staff against the hag's spine, a small explosion of frost exploding out of it on impact. The force of the blow caused the hag to burst like a balloon, exploding into a cloud of black shadowstuff that quickly dissipated, leaving nothing behind.
Her wings beating furiously, Tooth shot through the air above the others, taking care to avoid crashing into the cave's relatively low ceiling. Hearing Shock's loud cackle, Tooth whipped her head around in time to see the trick-or-treater barreling towards her on her flying broomstick. Reacting quickly, Tooth shut her eyes before she suddenly burst into a dozen smaller copies of herself, which nimbly zipped around Shock, avoiding her charge. Narrowing her eyes in aggravation, Shock quickly spun around in a tight circle, creating a whirlwind that shot after the little Tooths. Letting out high-pitched cries of surprise, the little Tooths were sucked into the whirlwind, which spun them around before spitting them out again, slamming them into the cave wall.
Recovering quickly, the little Tooths quickly swarmed back together, reforming into the singular Tooth. Narrowing her eyes at Shock, Tooth shot towards the trick-or-treater, who laughed as she charged the Guardian right back. Right before the two slammed into each other, Tooth swerved to the side, dodging around Shock. As the trick-or-treater zoomed past her, Tooth reached back and grabbed hold of the end of her broomstick, pulling it to a stop. The sudden stop sent Shock flying off her broom and she crashed to the ground with a yelp.
"No fair!" Shock called as she sat up and glared at Tooth.
"Some children can be such a handful," Tooth muttered with a shake of her head.
Grunting in pain, North slid to a stop, his boots digging into the stony ground, his twin sabers held crossed in front of him. As he recovered, he turned his attention to the tall, demonic shadow that stalked towards him, a pitchfork at the ready. Roaring, the demon rushed forward and thrust his pitchfork at North's chest, but the Guardian managed to bat the attack away with the flat of one of his blades. Pressing his advantage, North stepped forward and slashed the demon across the chest with his other saber, causing the shadow to roar as it stumbled back.
Catching itself, the demon snarled and swung its trident like a club at North, which the Guardian ducked beneath. Swinging its trident back around, the demon next tried to sweep North's legs out from under him. North avoided the attack by diving over it, but as he landed and rolled onto his back, the Guardian let out a cry of pain before clutching at the still fresh wounds there.
As North got his pain under control, he looked up to find the demon looming above him, his pitchfork raised to stab down at the Guardian. As the trident was plunged down at him, North dropped his swords and grabbed hold of the weapon, halting the prongs just in front of his face. Grunting in effort, North wrestled with the weapon, struggling as the demon put all of its weight against the trident. With another grunt, North pushed the weapon to the side, causing the trident to plunge into the rocky ground next to his head.
Rolling to the side, North managed to pull himself to his feet and pick up his swords as the demon struggled to free its trident from the ground. With a cry of challenge, North rushed forward, brandishing both swords threateningly. At the same time, the demon managed to free its trident and swung it up at North. North met the attack with his own weapons, striking the trident on the haft just below the weapon's head. With a clang, North's swords sliced through the trident's haft, sending the head tumbling through the air.
Pulling back, the demon looked at its sundered weapon in surprise before turning its attention to North as the Guardian leapt at the shadow with his weapons raised. As he reached the demon, North slashed at it with both of his swords and severed the demon's head, the Guardia landing on the ground in a crouched position as the shadow collapsed into shadowstuff and disappeared before the body could hit the ground.
Laughing wildly, Lock pulled back on his slingshot again before firing another fireball at Sandy, who blocked the attack with a kite shield he created from sand, the force of the resulting explosion knocking the Guardian back a few steps. Seeing this, Lock looked around before noticing some stalactites hanging from the cave ceiling above. Grinning wickedly, Lock pulled back on the slingshot again before firing another fireball at the ceiling.
The fireball hit the bases of the stalactites with a sizable explosion, which broke the sharpened stones loose and sent them plummeting down towards Sandy. His eyes widening in surprise, Sandy quickly waved his hands over his head, summoning a cloud of sand that formed into a trampoline just above him. As the stalactites hit the trampoline, the sand construct stretched elastically, slowing the falling debris to a halt, one of the rock points stopping only an inch from Sandy's face, causing the Guardian to jerk back reflexively. A moment later, the trampoline snapped back into place, shooting the stalactites upwards, where they slammed against the cave ceiling with a tremendous crash, causing smaller chunks of stone to rain down onto Sandy and Lock.
Lock blinked in surprise at this turn of events, but quickly regained his wits and shot another fireball at Sandy. Seeing the attack coming, Sandy quickly dismissed the trampoline before forming a baseball bat out of sand. Stepping to the side, Sandy squared up like a batter at the plate before swinging his bat as the fireball drew close enough, a strangely wooden cracking sound echoing through the cave as the objects collided.
The force of Sandy's swing sent the fireball shooting back towards Lock, who could only let out a cry of surprise as the fireball struck the ground at his feet and exploded. The force of the fiery blast knocked Lock completely off his feet and sent him tumbling through the air, trailing smoke like a rocket as the slingshot flew from his grasp. Tumbling back to Earth, Lock slammed into Shock just as she was picking herself up, sending them both crashing to the ground.
In a different part of the cave, Jack backflipped across the ground as the shadow skeleton slashed at him with its sword. Flipping back to his feet, Jack nimbly dodged two more swings but was struck on the jaw as the skeleton swung its shield at him, causing the Guardian's skull to spin on his neck. Grabbing hold of it, Jack straightened his skull and shook it clear, which opened him up to a kick to the chest from the skeleton that sent him sprawling.
Shaking his head clear, Jack's eye sockets widened in surprise as he saw the shadow skeleton rushing towards him with its swords raised. Thinking quickly, Jack stuck two of his bony fingers into his lipless mouth and somehow managed to blow a sharp whistle. A moment later, an ethereal creature emerged from the cave floor and shot into the air.
The creature resembled a classic ghost, looking like a white, semi-transparent bedsheet that floated in the air, its ends rippling in an unfelt breeze. At one end of the creature was a canine head with a long snout, a red collar around its neck and long ears that also flapped in the ethereal breeze. Instead of eyes, the creature had a pair of black holes, which matched the empty hole that formed its mouth. Perhaps the most notable feature about the creature was that it's snout ended in a miniature jack-o-lantern that glowed with an orange light.
"Zero!" Jack called, getting the ghostly dog's attention while pointing at the charging shadow skeleton, "Fetch!"
Looking in the direction Jack had pointed, the dog, Zero, let out a high-pitched yip before rocketing through the air towards the skeleton. Reaching the skeleton just as it swung its sword down at Jack, Zero bit the shadow on the forearm before his momentum carried him forward and the skeleton's arm separated from its elbow with an audible pop. As such, when the skeleton swung its arm down, the shadow swung nothing but empty air. Confused, the shadow skeleton turned to look down at its now half-missing arm before its gaze turned towards Zero, who began worrying the forearm a short distance away.
Taking advantage of the distraction, Jack quickly kicked himself back to his feet. As the skeleton turned its gaze back towards Jack, the Guardian spun on his heel and delivered a roundhouse kick to the shadow monster's jaw, knocking its skull clean off and causing the monster to dissipate into a cloud of shadowstuff, Zero letting out a disappointed whimper as the skeleton's arm disappeared as well.
Cackling gleefully, Barrel hurled a pair of femurs at Bunny, sending them twirling through the air towards the Guardian. Acting quickly, Bunny leapt forward and managed to dodge between the two projectiles, rolling to his feet as he landed on the ground. Drawing a pair of boomerangs, Bunny hurled them at Barrel in turn. Seeing the attack coming, Barrel held the open bag of bones in front of him, causing a pair of skeletal arms and hands to reach out and snagged the boomerangs out of the air.
As Bunny blinked in surprise at the action, the arms retreated into the bag and something began moving about within. A moment later, a shockingly large skull emerged from the bag, and let out a loud cackle. As Bunny's went wide in shock, the skull surged forwards, it's mouth opening and closing rapidly as it seemingly chewed through the earth as it charged the Guardian. Acting quickly, Bunny leapt up and flipped over the large skull. As he came back down, Bunny planted his feet on the back of the skull and pushed off, surging towards Barrel with startling speed.
Barrel, however, saw the Guardian coming, and lifted his still open bag of bones to meet Bunny. Before Bunny could reach Barrel, a skeletal foot and leg suddenly burst from the open bag, and kicked the Guardian full in the face. The blow completely reversed Bunny's momentum, sending the Guardian flying through the air away from Barrel before he crashed to the ground and rolled to a stop.
Cackling wildly, Barrel flipped the bag upside down, causing another skeletal leg to emerge from inside and settle next to the first, allowing the bag to stand on its own. Grinning wickedly, Barrel hopped up on the bag before pointing at Bunny and letting out a cry of challenge, causing the skeletal legs to charge towards the fallen Guardian.
Pushing himself off the ground, Bunny blinked in surprise as he saw Barrel charging towards him. Hopping to his feet, Bunny quickly tapped his foot on the ground, resulting in a hole appearing underneath one of the skeletal feet just as it took a step, causing the bag of bones to trip and fall to the ground, sending Barrel rolling across the cave floor. Acting quickly, Bunny raced forward and grabbed the bag of bones, flipping it upside-down as the skeletal feet kicked wildly at the air. Grabbing hold of the feet with both hands, Bunny forced them back into the bag with a grunt of effort before yanking the drawstrings of the bag as tightly closed as he could. Holding it up, Bunny watched as something in the bag moved and squirmed, but failed to break free.
Groaning and holding his head, Barrel sat up with a dazed expression on his face. Shaking his head clear, Barrel looked up and blinked in surprise as he found all six of the Guardians standing over him with angry expressions on their faces.
"Um," Barrel mumbled as he meekly held up his hands, "I surrender?"
In a separate part of the cave, Lock and Shock had just managed to pull themselves back to their feet. As they did, Barrel's cry of panic filled the cave, and the two looked towards the source of the sound, catching a glimpse of Barrel flying through the air a second before he crashed into them, sending all three falling to the ground.
"Alright, that's that taken care of," Bunny observed as he dusted off his hands, "Now let's deal with-"
Bunny was interrupted by the sharp sound of cracking wood that was amplified to near deafening volumes by the cave's acoustics.
"Oh no," Tooth whispered in horror as she and the other Guardians turned to look at the source of the sound.
Together, the Guardians saw that the willow tree that dominated most of the cave they were in now had a large crack running down the middle of its trunk. Before the Guardians could do anything, another loud crack filled the cave as the willow completely split, the two halves of the massive tree falling to the ground in a thunderous avalanche of wood, kicking up a cloud of dust and leaves that obscured all vision for a few moments.
As the cloud cleared, the Guardians were able to see that in place of the great willow, a figure now stood on the freshly created stump. The figure was a tall woman with a curvy physique, dark brown skin and long strands of willow-like leaves in the places of locks of hair. She wore a form fitting dress that appeared to be sown from overlapping layers of colorful leaves, starting as vibrant green at the neckline and becoming autumnal red at the hem. Slowly, the woman opened her eyes, revealing they were bright green in color.
After a moment, the woman blinked rapidly before yawning as she reached her arms above her head and stretched sinuously. Lowering her arms, the woman glanced around before blinking in surprise as she saw Samhain and Krampus standing nearby.
"Samhain?" the woman questioned in confusion, "Krampus? What's going on? Where are we? What happened?"
"I'm sure you're confused, Eostre," Samhain replied, "You've been asleep for quite awhile. But if you give it a few moments, it will all come back to you."
At this prompting, Eostre's brow furrowed in confusion as she searched her memories. As she did, her expression slowly turned more and more furious before she eventually turned her now blazing green eyes towards the Guardians.
"I remember you now," Eostre said, her voice low and dangerous as she stepped off the stump, vibrant green plant life springing up beneath her feet, "I'm going to enjoy feeding your bones to my children."
A/N: This chapter was a long time coming, but I had a lot of fun writing it, as I usually do when I'm writing big action scenes. Hope you all enjoyed it as well! Like usual, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!