Chapter Four: Atlantis
Jack Frost curled up in the stuffy darkness of a wooden box. He was in this awkward position because he had no choice: the Wendigo had stapled shut the lid and all the squirming and freezing in the world had not yet cracked the lid. He could feel the pirate ship pitching from side to side as the Nightmare horses strained at their harnesses and tangled their manes in their bridles in an effort to drag the boat forward. Jack sighed, he just had to go get captured by Pitch when trying to save Christmas: it felt like a repeat of Easter. If only he could escape and grab some of presents to continue delivering them, then not all would be lost, but he felt a sickening creak as the side of the pirate ship slammed into a dock, and although he was glad they would finally be on solid ground, he dreaded to see where Pitch would take him next.
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It was harder waking up the groundhog than Jaime expected, but soon the kids: Linus, Lucy, and Jaime were falling through the groundhog's portal to the North Pole to join the other guardians.
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The Pole was oddly quiet. The Yeti solemnly rubbed down the reindeer after they landed. The Guardians carried Jack into a spare room and the Yeti brought in some sort of machine to evaporate most of the water out of Jack's lungs. Figuring that it was now safe to continue delivering presents, the Guardians trundled back down the hall to the sleigh.
But before they were in sight of the sleigh, they heard bellowing, shouting, and things being thrown violently.
Pitch, his Wendigo, and the Yeti were fighting each other. Reindeer were charging all around them.
A Yeti yelled.
"They're scaring off the reindeer!" Tooth said.
Sandman and Tooth flew out the entrance to catch the reindeer that had already fled, the Great Pumpkin and Bunny charged at Pitch.
"Ah, Bunny, I'm having the best night of all tonight. So much fear…the world about to be destroyed…Why don't you simply give up?"
Bunny grunted and slammed into Pitch, but bounced off; Pitch hadn't budged. His power had grown from the fear that night.
"Everyone is afraid tonight, Bunny. Everyone is going to die. You, the children…Why waste your efforts giving presents that will never be opened?" Pitch glowered as Bunny's ears drooped.
"Because presents bring hope." Bunny said. "And if people still had hope, they might just figure out a way to stop that asteroid. But you… You won't even give them a chance."
Bunny sprang over Pitch's head, putting Pitch between him and the sleigh. He threw his boomerangs at Pitch, grabbing him by the shoulders – pinning him to North's sleigh.
"AAAUGH! OOOOWWW!" Pitch screamed. He jerked himself off the sleigh, which had a jolly coating of paint that seemed to burn his skin. Fire seared from his eyes. He grappled Bunny, slamming him into the wall.
The Great Pumpkin couldn't help Bunnymund. He lay in a pile of leaves and vines the Wendigo had torn off him. Re-growing them would take minutes.
Pitch was stomping on Bunny when he heard what he considered the worst noise in the world.
"HO-HO-HO!"
North had come. He prodded his swords against Pitch's shoulders and made him stand against the wall.
"Glad ya got better!" Bunny gasped, slowly rising.
"Vas never ill. Pitch scare me. Made me think all children would die." North's muscles gleamed as he kept Pitch in place.
"But they will, and you know it!" Pitch said.
"Maybe." North replied, "But why I give up if Jack Frost has not? He is like my son."
"You guys take this White Hair Club more seriously than I thought." Bunny grumbled.
"White Hair Company." Corrected North. Pitch seized his chance, he grabbed a couple sacks of presents and dashed into North's mansion.
"Rachmaninov!" North exclaimed.
"After him!" Cried the Great Pumpkin, unsuccessfully leaping to one vine.
North and Bunny chased him into the mansion. Back at the stable, Tooth returned, leading the reindeer as Sandy threw dream-sand at the Wendigo to cause slumber. The tired Yeti tied up the Wendigo and the reindeer as Tooth and Sandy followed the others down the hall.
Pitch had gone to the deserted Toy Room. He was pouring glue from a hose over all the toys to ruin them. Quickly, the Big Four thrust the doors open and Tooth knocked the hose out of his hands, getting some of it on his hair.
Sandy was thumping a foot, Bunny glaring with his front paws across his chest, and North's eyes were as sharp as a Cossack dancer. North began, "Pitch. Enough. Let us save the world."
"Save the world? Save the world!" Pitch argued. "How can Mr. Santa save the world? What about all the tsunamis, tornadoes, earthquakes that have killed kids? What about kids with cancer? What about that kid, that favorite kid who drowned all those years ago, and you never even noticed?"
"What kid?" Asked North.
"See? What's the point in them being happy, North? Even if some survive the asteroid, give them a couple hundred years and they'll all be dead anyway."
"Well, you're always one to tell half a story." Jack said from the doorway.
"Oh you!" Grinned Pitch. "You're going to save the children? I watched your memories. You couldn't even save yourself!"
"I saved my sister." Jack said. He glared into Pitch's eyes.
"You died to save one child… One child. At the cost of your own life. Can you do that over and over again? Can you die to save each of them?"
"Oh," grinned Jack. "It's not me who's gonna save them."
"I see no one." Pitch sneered.
"Good," Bunny said, "then you won't see this either." He aimed a kick at Pitch's head.
Around the corner came Jaime, Linus, and Lucy. Jaime and Linus cheered when they saw the guardians, but Lucy just looked confused.
"Uh, North," said the groundhog. "I'm afraid we took out the dishwasher when we portaled here."
"That is fine." North said. "It can always be repaired.
"Oh," Pitch blinked for a couple seconds then said sarcastically. "So the children are going to save the children."
"Nope." Said Jamie.
"Don't be a blockhead!" Lucy yelled.
"But aren't you afraid?" Pitch gloated. "These Guardians can't save you from an asteroid."
"I'm not afraid," said Linus. "Because of what I got for Christmas."
"But-" Pitch pulled out his map, "the gifts haven't reached Burgess yet."
"Not those gifts…" Said Linus, holding one hand up with his blanket trailing behind him in the other. "The Christmas Star."
"The deadly asteroid?" Pitch laughed.
"It's not deadly." Said Jamie. "I checked with the Groundhog. The Man in the Moon hung that ornament in the sky to remind people of Christmas 'cause he'd be gone tonight."
"And you've been telling everyone that it's a deadly asteroid!" Yelled Lucy. "HOW COULD YOU?"
"Well, I am the Boogeyman."
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The Sandman waved his hand, and a stream of sand washed over Pitch; he fell asleep. Off in a land of good dreams. Odd, since Pitch was usually immune to the power of good dreams.
"Hey, he doesn't deserve good dreams, mate!" Bunny said. "Not after what he's done!" But Sandy just pointed to a large clock on the wall. It was four a.m. in Burgess; soon children all over the Americas would be waking up and finding no presents.
"Oh!" Tooth said. "We haven't even finished with the East Coast!" Sandman, Bunny, and Tooth all dashed off to grab sacks of non-gluey toys.
Jack started toward the toy sacks too, but he was lifted off his feet by two large Yeti. "Not so fast, Jack." North said. "First you get vell."
The Yeti pushed Jack onto a chair and then watched him with their big eyes peering out from under bristling eyebrows in case he moved a muscle.
"Hey!" Jamie hollered. "What about us? We can help!"
"No," said North. "This is our job."
"But we could use your portal globes to deliver the presents to the people we know!" Jamie looked like he was waiting to jump over the vacationing moon.
"If we believe in you," Lucy said. "You should believe in us."
"Hmmm… " North said, ignoring the poor reasoning. "But you are children. You have job to get presents. Ours to give presents."
"But isn't it better to give than to receive?" Asked Linus.
"You are right," North said. He held out a few present sacks to them. "But remember. I know who's naughty and nice. Don't get on my naughty list!"
The children all promised they wouldn't. Jamie used a portal to deliver gifts to the children of Burgess, and Linus and Lucy left for their own hometown. After a dizzying portal ride, Lucy and Linus sat panting on the baseball mound. Soon they carried gifts to Pigpen, Peppermint Patty, Schroeder, Marcy, Franklin, Re-Run, Shermy, Violet, Frieda, and the little red-headed girl. They used a map to find the houses of children they did not recognize. Before they knew it there were only three gifts left in their sacks.
"To Charlie Brown, Sally Brown, and Snoopy the 'Easter Beagle.'" Lucy read. "Well this should be easy."
Linus and Lucy carried the presents up the familiar sidewalk to Charlie Brown's front door. They felt eerily like trick-or-treaters. Charlie Brown didn't have a chimney on his house, the windows were too high up to use North's Pop-Open-Windows-Air-Freshener, and worse, Charlie Brown didn't even have a dog door.
Linus walked over to Snoopy's doghouse, the dog was lying on the roof again. Linus carefully set the present in the doorway, and looked up to find the beagle's nose a mere inch from his. "AAAUGH!" Linus yelled, grabbing his blanket, his hair on end.
Snoopy started laughing at him, he jumped off his doghouse, and grabbed the present. A huge grin, that only a dog can make, came when he read the gift-tag: "To: Snoopy the Easter Beagle."
The commotion resulted in Charlie Brown blearily coming to the front door. "Linus? Lucy? But I thought you were on vacation…"
"Merry Christmas!" Said Linus, throwing his hands into the air.
"…And a Happy New Year." Lucy said. "Don't forget, I'm making you some resolutions this year, Charlie Brown."
"I'm sure I won't." Said Charlie Brown.
"The presents are from SANTA CLAUS!" Linus beamed, "He's real, you were right!"
"I-I was?"
"Didn't I always tell you he was real?" Lucy stomped her foot.
"Well…no, you didn't." Charlie Brown said quite honestly.
"Well, we've got to go back to the North Pole now." Linus rattled off as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Give this to Sally."
Charlie Brown took Sally's present from Lucy. Linus reached into the sack he was holding and withdrew a snow globe. He tossed it a few feet away and he and Lucy jumped into it, vanishing from sight.
Linus and Lucy were fairly tired when they came back to the North Pole. Being humans, it had taken them a full hour to deliver the presents to the children of their small hometown. Linus trudged sleepily over towards the next sack of presents, and tripped over a vine. He almost took no notice.
Then he looked up, in a chair sat a large pumpkin that began to grin as Linus looked at him.
"Are you…the Great Pumpkin?" Linus asked.
"Yes, you must be Linus VanPelt."
"Yes sir, Great Pumpkin."
"You are the child who has waited for me in the pumpkin patch every Halloween." The Great Pumpkin pushed himself up a little higher with his vines.
"How, how did you know? Am I the only one?"
"I have letters." The Great Pumpkin said. "I think you are sincere."
"From my letters?" Linus looked astounded.
"Well mostly because of a letter your friend, Charlie Brown, wrote North."
Linus felt Christmas and Halloween had come at once, and he hadn't even opened any presents yet. Soon, though, Lucy and Linus were sent through a portal back to Burgess. They stumbled into their sleeping bags, only to be woken up a few hours later by cheering. The news stations were now announcing that the asteroid wouldn't hit earth after all.
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It was nine a.m. Burgess time when the Guardians pulled in from Hawaii at the North pole. They'd been working since the morning of Christmas Eve and travelled around the globe which resulted in over 24 hours of extremely fast paced work, surviving dangerous situations, and keeping the reindeer fed, not to mention the worrying over the deadly asteroid and the end of the world.
The Yeti had locked Pitch up, so Sandman, deciding that they'd had enough, put them all in the land of good dreams.