Here it is... The BIG ONE! The one we've all been waiting for... THE SHOWDOWN!
I know, two updates in a day! As a thanks for the influx of reviews :D
Thanks to StoryTagger2, Invader Jor and sugarart, who have all faved and/or followed since the last chapter was uploaded. Welcome to the ride!
Revel in the chaos everybody!

The next couple of weeks were some of the most fun, embarrassing and curse worthy weeks that the guardians had ever experienced.
Prank after prank was played, both by Sandy and by Jack.
Some of the most memorable had been when North had gone to his sleigh, planning on messing with the engine, like he always did, only to find it covered- and by covered, it meant none of it's surface at all visible- by sticky notes. Hundreds and hundreds of sticky notes. Blues, greens, oranges, yellows and pinks. Of course, they couldn't help but be appreciative of the pretty butterfly's and flower patterns that the sticky notes made... Didn't mean that they weren't irritated when they all had to spend half an hour clearing it off, only to finally get to their feet and get blasted at with explosions of streamers, confetti and glitter. After the glue of course, because where is the fun of getting covered in Confetti and glitter without being covered in glue first?
Jack and Sandy had got some very amusing photos from that particular escapade...
Then there was the time Jack had got bored of just spiking North's biscuits with curry powder and what not, and had decided to kind of apologise to Tooth for turning her palace into a foam bath, when they had exploded water and bubble mixture and various other things from hoses at the windows, and scrape all of the vanilla cream from in North's oreo's-a task he delagated to the elves- and replaced it with toothpaste. Mint toothpaste, because he was that much nicer...
The disgusted yelps given by North, and then Bunny, and the delighted giggles from Tooth had had Jack laughing so hard it hurt, and Sandy had been in a silent laughing fit of his own.
Then they had 'borrowed' an orb from North, and Jack had waded into a freezing cold river up to his knees before placing the orb under the surface and opening a portal to Santoff Claussen. The yelping, wet Yeti's had been one of the most amusing sights yet, especially when one of them tumbled into a stack of footballs and sent them tumbling around the room, causing another-Bob Jack thought- to wail and run in circles. Even if he had only kept it open for a second or two... Wasn't his fault that the portal opened above their heads... Cue far too innocent grin.
Then Tooth. Jack had got Baby Tooth in on a prank, and had created a fake, yet perfect Tooth. Tooth, in her hurry to squeal in delight and coo over it, hadn't taken the time to even consider testing it, and it had exploded over her, Bunny and North getting spattered as well, with Honey, blue and yellow food colouring and sugar.
Even now, they had no idea how they managed to pack all of it into the tooth... They were sure it was magic of somekind, but how...
They hadn't had time to figure it out before they were being sprayed with even more glue and three glitter bombs had exploded above their heads, coating them in the sparkling stuff. It was a nightmare to get it out fur and feathers...
Jack and Sandy had deebated about using such a similar prank, but in the end agreed that it was just too good not to.

It eventually got to a point where North took to wearing pretty much full battle armour, Tooth was keeping herself in a protective bubble and Bunny was armed to the teeth with paint balloons, paint guns with over the top amounts of ammunition and smoke bombs. That was after the Burgess kids had cornered them, under Jack's orders, and bombarded them with coloured paint, stink bombs, water bombs, flour bombs and pretty much anything else they could think of... including some creative ideas of their own, such as flour already mixed with water, sticks-Jack still wasn't sure why, but the yelps from Bunny had been amusing- and trying to trap them with ropes, which ended in North being pulled upside down, hanging from a tree, and being attacked with paint.
None of them had seen any sign of any other spirits, and eventually found out that as soon as they heard Jack Frost was on a Prank Crusade, with the aid of the dream giver, most had gone into hiding. Jack's pranks were legendary... Of course, this made him and April Fool bitter rivals, making it even more important to keep them away from each other.
Of course, it all had to come to a close at some point or other, and they all knew it was going to be big...
_

North had taken to cooking his own meals, even though he was useless at it, or making sure he was stood watching the whole process, after he had received four batches of chilli cookies, one batch of extra salty and one batch of-he shuddered again-sugar free...
And he was now stood in the kitchen, pulling a batch of brownies from the oven, He had just stood up when he heard a terrifyingly familiar voice,
"Hey North."
The brownies went flying as he span, falling backwards, and looking at the grinning guardian of fun, who had, of course, snapped a picture of it, though North wasn't aware of the fact. Heck, none of the guardians knew that they had been being photographed over the course of the last few weeks.
"Ah, Jack. What brings you to Pole?"
"Oh, nothing much... Just came by to say Hi..." He had snatched a few brownies from the air and took a bite from one, giving it a surprised nod.
"Hey, these are good! Could use some chocolate chips though... Anyway, I just came to let you know that the game is nearly up. We have but one more prank, then we're calling it quits."
"Ah... Is Bunny and Tooth being-"
"Sandy wanted to let those two know... Anyway, just a heads up. See ya North... Oh, and nice armour!"
With that, he swept out, munching on the brownies, and North took a deep breath.
A few second later, Tooth flew in at the window, and it wasn't long before Bunny poked his head around the door.
North cracked his knuckles.
"Comrades, this era is coming to close. We must prepare for all out war with pranksters."
Bunny nodded, and grinned.
"Damn right, and I've 'ad a stash a' stuff ready for such an occasion, ever since Sandy threatened to get us back over half a century ago. 'Fraid I armed the Yeti's with most of it though, so please tell me ya got something for this North?"
The big man nodded, with a smile.
"Da... I have been prepared in secret for this day since Sandy vowed his revenge. Is good to know it will not be wasted. Come!"
A few minutes later, Tooth and Bunny were staring, grinning in both surprise and glee, as they took in the contents of the store room.
"Mate, ya got enough for a small army in there..."
"Da. But more than enough for us. We will not go down without fighting..."
They all grinned before heading in to suit and arm up.

Jack arrived back at the palace at the same time as Sandy.
"They get the message?"
He nodded, and signed quickly. Jack was now even better at signing, and could understand Sandy without a second's thought.
"So they will have secret stashes of weapons for this kind of thing? Jeez, what did they do all those years ago to be so afraid of you?"
Sandy just shrugged, and Jack rolled his eyes. All he had got out of the older guardian was something about sand not going well with water.
"Well, they may be armed to the teeth, but they won't be the only ones."
Now for the moment that Sandy had been waiting for. Apparently a couple of spirits Jack knew had been hoarding his extreme prank gear for years, in payment for not being victim to them, and now Jack was bringing them out to play.
Sandy watched, first in amusement, then shock as Jack made trip after trip, returning with different things that ended up piling into a pile that was taller than ten stacked elves...
Eventually, Jack dusted his hands, and began sorting through it, arming not only himself and Sandy, but also the elves as well.
He'd also roped Shady into it, as well as gotten a few of the Yeti's, who had decided it would be fun to be traitors, suited up.
Eventually, they were all armed with smoke bombs and grenades, paint bombs, water bombs, flour bombs, slingshots with ice cubes, streamers, hose packs filed with a sweet, sticky candyfloss type mixture that could be sprayed up to thirty feet, paintball guns with belts of ammunition in blue, white and yellow and larger weapons, such as tennis ball machines rigged to fire snowballs instead of tennis balls.
They were planning on using their larger weapons first, before relying on hand to hand combat, and so Sandy had created another cannon type machine with his gold sand that could fire snowballs as well, which he was eager to recreate.
After all, it wouldn't do to send half the field to sleep with dream sand, and he did want to be useful in some way...
Eventually it got to a point where Jack was satisfied, and he gave Sandy a high five.
Then Sandy shot off, and Jack got the others to hoist up flags with their symbol on it, which he had also spray painted onto the Yeti's back, and the elves hats.
He, himself, was wearing his black bottoms and Hoody, and had even tied a piece of black fabric around his forehead, matching the elves as he painted stripes on their cheeks in blue and gold paint.
If they were doing this, they were doing it in style.
_

The other three guardians, who were just taking a breather before suiting up properly themselves, all jumped when Sandy arrived, dressed in full combat gear, and he gave them a series of symbols which were easy to interpret.
One hour... Outside Santoff Claussen on the plain to the north... Be there...
Then he flew off, leaving the others to rush and get ready, looking very worried at what Sandy was wearing, and wondering just what Jack had up his sleeves, and also arming the Yeti's that were still there.
Before long, they were all suited up, armed with a similar array of weapons to Jack and Sandy, but with an actual cannon. Of course, North had only rigged it to fire vast amounts of cookies, but still...
Tooth had her fairies, all dressed in warm winter gear, armed with mini slingshots and tiny teeth that North had invented, that exploded on contact with honey or green, pick or red food colouring- because two could play at that game- and Bunny was manning the cannon as North led the Yeti's. They knew how it went. Large weapons, then the ground forces...
They blinked as they saw Jack flying in, likely knowing that half the fairies would go whoozy at the sight of him dressed like Rambo, sleeves rolled up, paint on his face and his hair flying in the wind, and, as several of the fairies withdrew, even more staring at him in complete adoration, Tooth sighed and face palmed.
The next to arrive was Sandy, coming in to the sound of golden speakers playing Rise of the Valkyries, before changing to trumpets and playing a cavalry march as the few Yeti's and elves arrived.
North blinked at the array of things they had. How the hell was Jack able to get hold of all this stuff?
But that was a question for another time as Sandy created a cannon type machine from the sand, himself at the helm with a helmet, and Jack swirled his staff, creating hundreds of snowballs in the air.
He gave them all an evil grin, before directing them into the tennis machine and Sandy's, each of which immediately started firing at the other group.
"Return Fire!" North cried, and cookies began to fly.
Thus, it began...

For several minutes, the larger weapons were firing, until Sandy finally decided he'd better give it a rest, and Jack directed the last of his ammunition into the tennis machine, which spat snowballs out for a few more moments before falling silent.
A quick gust of wind swept the last of the cookies over the heads, or to the feet of the elves, like it had been doing for most of the barrage, and the cookies too stopped.
Grinning, Jack pulled his paintball gun from around his shoulders and clicked the catch, loading a round. At the ominous click, the others immediately began doing the same, and Jack waited until they had done so before taking the catch off of a smoke grenade and tossing it into no-mans land. The other guardians moved just as it hit the ground, and Jack grinned.
"Okay wind... Now!"
The smoke began to curl around, and Jack ran forward, Sandy right beside him, firing at the blurred figures. They were rewarded with yelps and tumbles, before the smoke cleared and they could really start.
Smoke bombs, Paint bombs, flour and water bombs, fake teeth and miniature cookies flew everywhere. The elves began to work in pairs, under Sandy's instruction, one with flour and one with water, making sludge monsters of the Yeti's as dozens of elves teamed up on each one.
The battle cries would have made anyone think world war three was happening, but, in a way, it was...
The other Yeti's were busy blasting at North and the Fairies, and Sandy was focused on Tooth, both laughing as they threw paint at each other. That left Jack with...
Bunny.
Bunnymund grinned as Jack landed in front of him, and juggled a couple of paint balloons.
"Come on then, snowflake... Let's see what ya got..."
A temporary truce swept over everyone else as they watched the two.
For over ten minutes, they leapt, dodged, ducked, rolled and threw various balloons, snowballs and-when Bunny had started getting short on ammunition- elves at each other, before eventually running out, and diving behind snow banks, firing at each other with paintball guns.
It was all going nicely, until Jack, who had only got a faint spattering of paint and flour from the cast off of other balloons, and a small patch of honey from where he hadn't had the heart to duck from Baby Tooth's brave attack, took a hit of green paint to the shoulder. He fired two shots back at Bunny, getting him covered in blue paint, but the damage was done.
With a cry, Sandy led the others in a frontal assault, putting the others on the defensive.

Eventually, what with the surrenders and lack of ammunition, it came down to the five guardians... as well as two elves, but no one seemed to count those. North made a grab for the elves, and started chasing them about, leaving Sandy to shrug and target Bunnymund. Jack grinned widely as he and Tooth faced each other, and the squealing of her little fairies-not wanting Jack's outfit to get covered in pink paint-, plus the fact that she really was starting to get cold and didn't what Jack to have a pity fight with her, had her throwing her hands up.
"I'm out!"
Bunny and North stopped and stared at her, leaving them vulnerable to being tripped up by elves and blasted with a snowball, and she shrugged.
"Sorry guys... He grinned at me..."
They both sighed, shrugging as if to say 'fair point' before turning back.
North easily caught the elves after that, and turned his attention to Jack, who was throwing a balloon of white paint in the air and catching it, idly.
"You want a break, old man?"
"Old maybe, but comes with experience, Jack."
"Tell me that when you lose..."
"Bring it over."
"On. The saying is bring it on."
"Reall-?Oof!"
He landed in the snow, having been too distracted to dodge the snowball thrown by Sandy, and immediately rolled over to his feet again, only to be hit with a balloon, which exploded, showering him with white paint.
That was never going to come out...
"Right... It is all way on..."
He got out a box like thing from his back, which folded out into a full sized, rapid fire bazooka that seemed to fire...
"Cookie Dough?" Jack said to himself, grudgingly admiring the idea, then blinked at North's next words.
"Meet... The Cookie Monster!"
Jack gave a soft whistle, before dodging the huge wad of cookie dough that flew his way. He scooped up one of the candy floss blasters, and dodged another blast as he unscrewed it and grabbed the firing section of it.
North gave an appreciative nod as the younger guardian dismantled the thing in his hands, and rotated part of it, folding it in to become something similar to his own blaster.
The winter spirit really did think of everything...

Sandy and Bunny had likewise paused, and Sandy grinned as the empty candyfloss blaster turned into a very sophisticated looking missile launcher. Or rather, snowball launcher.
Bunny was likewise impressed, and made a mental note to ask how the hell the little maelstrom made the thing, before he decided to use the lull to his advantage.
Before he could throw at the golden guardian however, a snowball flew into his face, and he lost his balance, tripping and sliding down a snow bank.
Jack grinned as he got a head shot, then yelped as he ducked and slid down a back himself, dodging another ball of cookie dough. The whole ball of mixture shattered and he blinked as some of it landed in his mouth. Hmm, the stuff was actually pretty tasty...
He pushed himself up, then grinned. Bunny wasn't the only one who could tunnel.
"Sandy! Switch targets!"
He got an affirmative trumpet call, and grinned.
Bunny on the other hand, was immediately worried. Jack must have something up his sleeve...

He leapt over the bank, into open space, and let his senses take over. Thing was, he couldn't hear him, see him or smell him.
He wasn't on the ground, or in the air... Where the hell-
It hit him just as the blast of snow did behind him, and he span to see the spirit blasting through the snow from beneath him.
"Snow tunnels... Haven't used any in years..."
He grinned, and the spectators, including Tooth started cheering, though Tooth acted all innocent, whistle and casual sauntering in the air and all, when North and Bunny glared at her.
"Alright frost bite, it was impressive, I'll give ya that..."
"Oh, I'm not done..."
Bunny's ears twitched as he heard something beneath the ground. Jack went on, as if nothing was wrong.
"Another thing you guys don't know about me is that I have a weird affinity with animals... Especially arctic ones."
The ground was now shaking, and both North and Sandy were staring at Jack and Bunny, wondering just what was going on.
"Anyway, yeah. The funny thing is, Arctic rabbits seem overly fond of me, and are happy to help me out now and then... So, with that in mind, say hello to my little friends!"
With that, snow shot up all around bunny and several frost white, tiny rabbits bounded into the air.
They were joined by several of Jack's own creations, before he grinned.
"And now, the Return of the Cuteness!"
Bunny's cry of surrender was cut out as he was buried beneath a mound of rabbits, and Jack grinned when he realised that Bunny was officially out. He decided to leave the rabbits there for good measure though...
Then he flew over to join Sandy, who gave him a high five and a wide grin, before they both turned to face North.
The huge guardian looked between them, then at Bunny, then back at them, and threw the cookie blaster to the ground.
"Okay, you win!"
A series of gold fireworks sparked everywhere, and Jack and Sandy high-fived again.
"Told you we could do it, Sandman..."
Seems fun makes a good weapon...
Sandy signed, and Jack laughed.
"Yep. Anyway, are you tired? I'm suddenly feeling tired..."
Sure enough, he gave a yawn, before smiling at the sight of Bunny, managing to finally fight his way out or the writhing pile of fur.
_

Jack grinned, flying down, and emptying a bag of carrots on the ground, which the rabbits all raced to.
Funny, they actually liked carrots... They all licked him, snuggling in, before nipping a carrot and vanishing into the ground again.
The ice rabbits vanished, and Bunny gave Jack a hand up.
"I'm assuming this means a truce, eh Frostbite?"
Jack laughed.
"Yeah, I'm actually out of pranks... Gonna need some time to get some new ones... Oh, and I really need to restock all my stuff... I wonder if Shady still has the name of that place..."
He continued mumbling to himself, and a light bulb appeared over Sandy's head, causing him to give the others a wave before flying away.
Bunny rolled his eyes at North, both thinking the same thing.
This was not going to be anything good... But, for now, they could take a break.
Speaking of which, Tooth smiled as she came up.
"Well, now that it's safe to fly the skies again, I have to get going... Congratulations Sweet Tooth! See you guys later."
She flew of, her fairies flying behind her, and Bunny rolled his eyes.
"I guess this means we're cleaning up then, eh?"
North shook his head as he noticed how tired Jack was.
"No, me and you will be cleaning with elves and Yeti's. Jack needs to sleep. He must have used lots of energy for making life difficult, da?"
Jack gave an indignant scowl.
"Hey, I'm fine."
Too late. North grabbed him and dragged him off, protesting, and Bunny grinned.
True, he'd be cleaning it up, but the scene of chaos was also the scene of the most fun he'd had in years. So he figured it was a decent exchange.
"Come on then, let's get this cleared up before some human gets snapshots of it... We don't want another incident like when old pumpkin head got himself spotted..."
At the memory of the Halloween spirit, The Headless Horseman, and the resulting legend, they started clearing things up, and it wasn't long before they were back in the pole, sorting through it all.
North arrived just as they were carrying the last lot in, and rolled his eyes.
"Boy is stubborn, da? Had to get Sandy to use Dream Sand. Used a lot of power for last few weeks."
"Well, he is the guardian of fun, North. I reckon 'e thought it was about time we 'ad some."
"Da. And it worked very well."
"Ya got that right, mate. Now we just have to find a way to make it up to 'im."
"Da, but is nearly Christmas. We make it up to him by giving him best Christmas he ever had. We didn't really do that last year..."
"For once, I reckon ya may be right about Christmas... Sounds good."
"And Tooth will agree also I think. And Sandy. Will be Christmas to remember."
"Considering it'll be his first proper one..." Bunny muttered, determined to think of something that would be the perfect gift. It was only a few months away after all...
"Then," North said with a grin, "We get vengeance for pranks da?"
"Rather you that ne mate... You insane?"
"Da, but he never see it coming."
"... Let me get back to you."
_

Jack woke up, the following morning, to a note from Sandy.
He blinked as he read it, then looked at the foot of his bed where, sure enough, there was a stack of stuff. And by stuff, he meant replacements for everything he had used over the last few weeks, as well as dozens of other things. It was everything a prankster could want.
Jack grinned.
He'd give them a break for now... But the ideas rolling around in his head demanded to be released, and he flew to the wall, scrawling on it with ice. Notes and plans for countless pranks.
Then he memorised the wall, blinking and erasing it as he heard footsteps.
He quickly pulled on his Hoody, faking a yawn as he sat back on the bad, before pretending to be just getting up as North knocked and entered.
"Ah, Jack, You are awake. Good, we have problem..." He stopped for a dramatic pause, before finishing. "Need to know if brownies need more sugar."

He looked so serious when he said it, that Jack couldn't help laughing and followed him out.
Pranking may be fun, and his plan to get every single one of the guardians enjoying themselves seemed to have worked perfectly, but it felt good to get back to normal.
Speaking of normal...
"Hey Phil!"
The yeti span at the sound of his voice, and lost his balance, before he fell into the new pyramid of neatly stacked balls.
Jack laughed as he few away from the yowling, irritated Yeti, and followed North into the kitchen, where the elves were back to cooking normally, much to North's relief.
Yep, it was definitely good to have things back to normal for a while...
And...
"Hey North, these are great. Even remembered the chocolate chips this time!"

The exploding Tooth idea came from SnowFlower Frost, and the Oreo and Sticky note ideas from Lliri... Cheers guys :D
Anyway, about all the movie references and quotes and such during this prank crusade...? What can I say. I just couldn't resist...

Next, well, Jack promised Romeo and Juliet to the fairies, and now they're getting him to pay up...
Then we're gonna have a Christmas celebration, Jack will possibly meet April Fool, Pitch returns with more orbs, we may see a bit more of Shady... Hmm, maybe the Headless Horseman's story, Guardian Style? Bunny vs Jack somehow? That could be amusing... Ooh, what if Jack could cook?
To be honest, I have so many ideas rolling around, that I have no idea what order to write them in... Ah well, Hope you enjoy them whatever they are!

Raven xx