"So, mind telling me why we're at Tooth's place again? Not looking for spare change, are we?" Jack asked Pitch as he slowly turned on the spot, taking his time as he stare at the place in awe.
As expected from the tooth fairy. The scene was breath taking, what with the floating structures bursting with colors and filled with little tubes containing sets of teeth. The place was filled with the tooth fairy's little helpers; tiny fairies resembling humming birds. He didn't have to worry about being seen, though. One of Pitch's ability was concealing himself and who or whatever he wanted to hide.
"Of course not, money is of no value to me." Pitch joined Jack in looking at the structure; a little bit of appreciation before ruining this beautiful place.
"I don't know. You can always buy yourself some new clothes. You know, something not black." Turning back, Jack pulled at Pitch's sleeve and suggested with a smug grin.
"I'd rather not waste effort on fashion." He replied without looking at the teen. "Black happens to be a pure color that suits everything."
"It is also dull and makes you look boring. Oh well, suit yourself." Jack shrugged; he had to admit that black was probably the only color that's going to suit his friend here. Imagining Pitch in pink would be a nightmare.
Yeah, black's good.
"Then, what are we here for?" Swirling his staff about in his hand, Jack asked.
"For a game, of course. I'm a man of my words, and if it's fun I guaranteed, it's fun I'll give." Pitched smiled and pointed to the busy little fairies.
"We'll have a competition to see who can trap the most fairies, and just for you my friend, there's no rules."
"Sweet." Jack grinned and tightened his grip on his staff.
"Just don't let any of them escape, won't want any uninvited players, would we?" With that, Pitch waved his hand outwards, signifying the start of their little game.
"What do you mean we don't have him?" North demanded in his rich Russian accent as he stared at Bunnymund with wide shocked eyes.
"Exactly what I said." Bunnymund lifted the empty sack for everyone to see.
Tooth gasped and held a hand to her mouth; Sandy formed a huge exclamation mark with his dream sand and North. Well. North's eyes couldn't be opened wider.
"Oh don't feel too bad about it. We all have little failures here and there." Tooth flew to Bunnymund and placed a hand on his shoulder; she glanced at Sandy, who quickly nodded in agreement.
"True, but this failure here may cost us more than a few unhappy children." North pointed out, "What happened?"
"Pitch happened." Bunnymund shrugged and dropped the sack before telling the other guardians the message that Pitch left them.
"Grimsly Gorsicles!" North muttered, obviously stunned by the current situation. The others didn't have a clue on what he meant, but there's a more important problem at hand.
"Shouldn't we do something? Jack might be in danger." Tooth asked, worried.
"Wouldn't worry 'bout that mate, Jack Frost won't be easily hurt by some nightmares. That fella's got nothing to fear— holy." As he was assuring Tooth, something struck his mind as his eyes widened.
"Looks like we're going to need some sweaters then." North simply said as he clapped his hands, calling his yetis.
"Sweaters? Sweaters aren't going to stop Jack Frost!" Bunnymund argued.
Tooth and Sandy simply exchanged a look, both still a little puzzled about what's happening.
"They keep you warm."
"He's not just going to give us chills!"
"Jack's not a bad boy!"
"Well then I ain't the Easter bunny either."
"You aren't?" Tooth asked with a raised tone, surprised.
"Of course I am!" Bunnymund shook his head in disbelieve; some people just can't tell sarcasm.
"Look." North sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose. "Christmas is coming soon and Pitch coming at us during this time makes me more concerned than all of you, but-"
"Now you're just saying that Christmas is more important than Easter." Bunnymund rolled his eyes.
"Hahaha, now you get the idea!" North's eyes lit up to that as he let out a heartening laugh; Santa's special.
With that, the two of them started the old argument over who's day was more important. Easter day or Christmas?
"They never give up, do they?" Tooth asked, getting a helpless shrug from Sandy as the two watched the debate in front of them.
Tooth was just about to go up and try stopping them when a quick sudden pain hit her, getting her attention. Knowing what the pain could only mean, she turned and flew out of North's place as fast as her wings could carry her.
Noticing this, Sandy immediately understood that something bad must have happened. Turning to face the quarreling pair, he waved his hands frantically in hope to get noticed. That hardly worked.
He tried calling them, but since he couldn't speak, the dream sand went crazy above his head as different shapes formed and changed in a few seconds.
That didn't work either.
Annoyed, Sandy was about to throw something at the two when one of Santa's elves passed by, the bell on the elf's hat getting Sandy's attention. Grabbing the elf as a hat, he started shaking it madly.
"We have a Christmas tree—" hearing the bell, North paused and turned to look at Sandy, Bunnymund followed.
Having finally caught their attention, Sandy pointed to the spot beside him where Tooth was just a moment ago. The dream sand formed a huge arrow and pointed at the spot too. Just in case two hands pointing at a spot wasn't enough hint.
"Where's Tooth?" Bunnymund asked, lifting an eyebrow.
Sandy nodded immediately, almost thankful that someone else finally realized what's wrong.
"Sandy! Why didn't you just say so?" North exclaimed and quickly turned to call for his sled. Behind him, two steaks of dream sand blew out of Sandy, who was obviously pissed.
What in the world was he trying do all those time while they were arguing?!
"Two hundred and fifty six, ha, beat that." Jack counted as he trapped another little fairy in his huge container made out of ice. He even made sure that it wasn't too cold in the container for the fairies.
Turning around, however, he saw Pitch standing on two, waiting as his pets, a few dozens of them; gallop around in the air and trapping the fairies for him.
"Hey! That's not fair!" He argued and flew towards Pitch.
"There's no rules, remember?" The latter simply smiled.
… Oh. Right.
"Well then, two can play at that game!" With a sly grin, he flew up towards the horses, snuck up behind them and started tapping them with his staff. Before Pitch knew it, he was staring at a group of ice horses.
"They count as mine, thank you very much!" Jack grinned victoriously.
"Very well then," Looking up at Jack and his newly acquired horses, Pitch snapped his fingers together. Almost immediately, swarms of dark beauties emerged from the shadows and spread out in the sky. "Let's bring the challenge up a notch."
With that, the game continued, and before they knew it, they've gotten every fairy visible.
"Aw man, that was fun. Let's do that again!" Sitting on the very top of a structure, Jack suggested.
"I would very much agree with you, but it seems that our uninvited guests are arriving." Clapping his hands together, all the horses started retreating into the dark, disappearing in the shadows, except for one that remained beside Pitch.
"Let's be on our way, our guests are, unfortunately, not as friendly."
Knowing who Pitch was referring to, Jack raised his staff and pointed it in the direction of Pitch's lair. His horses nodded and left in the instructed direction, bringing the ice container full of fairies along with them.
Such obedient pets. Jack made a mental note to ask Pitch for advice he he's ever going to train his own pets.
"You're not planning to walk, are you?" Noticing that Jack had sent all the horses away, Pitch couldn't help but ask.
"Nah, I've already got transportation covered." Grinning, he put his hand to his mouth and whistled loudly.
Within seconds, a neigh was heard as an ice blue horse galloped towards Jack. Pitch simply watched, amazed. The horse stopped beside Jack and nuzzled at jack's shoulder, showing obvious affection and trust.
… That boy managed to completely tame his horse in less than a few days?
"Easy boy." Jack laughed and pet the horse on the head."
"I see you've already found a favorite." Pitch remarked, noticing that the horse looked different from the other horses Jack had transformed just now.
So he even modified the horse?
"What can I say?" Jack shrugged, "Even horses can't resist my charms." He joked.
"…Very well then, let's be on our way." Pitch rode on his horse and waved at Jack to follow.
Now, let the guardians come.
When the three joined Tooth at her palace, everything was already over.
"Gone, gone, gone, gone!" Tooth chanted as she flew around, checking her place. "They took all my fairies and the teeth!" She sobbed.
Bunnymund stuck his boomerang back in its sheath and walking up to Tooth, placed a hand (…paw?) on her shoulder.
"It's alright mate, we all have little failures here and there." He consoled.
"Bunny's right. We can't predict or prevent everything from happening." North added. "But what we can do, is fix things." He smiled encouragingly. "Right Sandy?"
Sandy nodded almost immediately as the dream sand formed a fixing patch above his head. The group laughed.
"The first thing to do, of course, is to get the teeth collecting done." North suggested, smiling.