I'm sorry for not updating for so long, things have been a little confusing for me for a while. First I got a full time job, then school started, and after a few weeks and some soul searching, I finally realized that academia wasn't my path and dropped out, but enough about my personal life, on to the next chapter.
Chapter 3; the guardians of fear.
Bunny brought Frost and Lantern back to the globe, and what they saw made there hearts skip. The lights on the globe were going out, but they were doing it in a strange way. Instead of going out all over the globe (literally) they vanishing lights were concentrated in a single area. Specifically, Burgess Pensilvania, Jack Frosts home town.
"What is happening?" North asked.
"I don't know, but I'll bet my staff that Pitch is behind it." Frost said firmly.
"Everyone, to the sleigh." North proclaimed. He lead them down into the depths of his workshop, to an underground runway. Yetis and elves were scrambling, some were moving various objects around, while others were franticly clearing the runway of debris. A set of doors at the back of the runway opened, out out stepped eight giant reindeer bulling a magnificent giant sleigh. While everyone else looked at the sleigh in awe joy, or in Bunny's case nervousness, Lantern simply looked at it with his singular apathetic expression. Without another word he climbed on. North was a little taken aback by this behavior.
"Guess not every one loves the sleigh, mate." Bunny said in Norths ear. North grunted, but took the reigns anyway.
"Are we ready?" North said. Without waiting for a response from the yetis, North cracked the reigns and the reindeer bolted. They were pulled down a steep tunnel and raced along an icy trail like an over sized bobsled. As they raced along the track North laughed while Bunny clung to his chair, looking nauseous.
"I hope you like the loopty loops." North said (mostly to Lantern) enthusiastically. Soon they left the icy tunnels and raced up a wooden ramp and were airborne. They did a single mid-air loop and were off. Jack look at Lantern, smiling from ear to ear.
"Now wasn't that fun?" Jack said. Lantern looked at him, and In a burst of flames, turned into a slightly overweight man with curly red hair. He was wearing a "Thrill Junky" Tea shirt, and his lantern had become pair of headphones.
"That was extreme!" He shouted. With another burst of flames he became a tall, thin man. He wore a white button up shirt and black pants. He also wore glasses (that Jack assumed was his Lantern.)
"I should use this for the designees of my next roller coaster." With another burst of flames, Lantern returned to normal and sat quietly, leaving the other looking at him strangely.
"Is it just me, or is this Lantern bloke a bit off?" Bunny whispered to Jack, Sandy and Tooth.
"'Off?' He's totally creepy, no other way to put it." Tooth said in a hushed hiss.
"He's not that creepy." Jack retorted.
"I can hear you." Lantern said calmly.
"Stop the arguing, everyone. Were about to make jump." North said as he took a snow globe out of his pocket.
It was the dead of night in the town of Burgess, and a young girls slept peacefully, ignorant of the malicious presence watching her from the shadows.
CLANK. A picture frame of her and her family had been knocked down, startling her awake. In the glow of her nightlight, she saw the fallen picture. She got out of bed, walked over and picked it up. Little did she know that in the glow of her nightlight, a black slime began to ooze it's way out of her shadow and inch along the floor toward her.
As the girl put the picture back where it belonged, she hear a soft squishing noise behind her. She turned around, but saw nothing. Her suspicions calmed, she turned to get back in bed. Thats when it struck. Without warning, the black slime pounced, enveloping the girl. Only her screams of terror escaped the ooze. The girls parents rushed to the their daughters room, but by the time they arrived the sludge had gone, as well as there daughter.
High above the town, North and the other Guardians arrived through a magic portal. No sooner had they arrived they found themselves ambushed by a torrent of black sand that swirled around the sleigh.
"What is this?" Lantern asked, sounding cool and collected despite the circumstances.
"These are Nightmares. Jack said as he blasted them with ice. Surprisingly, the Nightmares were not attacking. Instead, the black sand collected around the base of the sleigh and the rein dear, prompting a corse change.
"It seems there trying to steer us somewhere." Lantern said.
"And I think I know where to." Frost said pointing to the roof of an office building. Cast upon the flat surface was the oversized silhouette of Pitch Black. The Shadow then vanished, and Pitch himself stood on the roof of the building, waiting patiently. The Guardians landed the sleigh, and leapt out, ready for battle.
"The Big Four…Oh, sorry, I mean Big Five." Pitch corrected, looking at Frost. "It's been such a long time." Pitch said with a smile. "And I see you've brought a friend."
"Jack O'Lantern." Lantern said flatly.
"So, you've added a new member to your team." Pitch said.
"More of a trial membership." Lantern interjected.
"Well, since you've added a new member to your team, I suppose it's only fair I introduce you to the new members of my team." Before any of the guardians could ask what he meant, Pitch snapped his fingers. From out of his shadow, a black ooze began to seep. The sludge accumulated into one big pile and a tendril extended from it, with a hole through the middle of it that resembled an eye. The guardians barely had time to express their disgust when they were suddenly surrounded by a thick white fog. The mist swirled around all of them, as if it were inspecting them. It then collected in-between Pitch and the black slime, and took the vague form of a woman. They then heard the sound of heavy panting, and a hideous conglomerate creature pulled it's self up onto the roof of the building. It had the head of a wolf, the body of a bear, the arms of a gorilla and the tail of a lion. As the beast joined the other, a small boy stepped out from behind Pitch. He was wearing tattered cloths, his hair was a messy mop, and he had the look of someone who had completely given up on life.
"These are my children." Pitch said. He gestured to the slime, "'Shock,'" the white smoke "'Lonesome,'" the Chimaera, "'Primal'" He then patted the little boy on the shoulder. "and this is 'Lose.'"
"Who or what are these blokes?" Bunny asked, his face contorted in disgust."
"As I said rabbit, these are my children; the guardians of fear."
"They are why children of this town have stopped believing." North said, pointing with his swords.
"I'm afraid you're only half right North. Yes, they are the reason the children of this town have stopped believing, but it's far more complicated than that." Pitch said with a malicious slime.
"What did you do to them?" Tooth demanded.
"Wouldn't you like to know." Pitch replied.
"If you think were going to let you mess with children of the world," Frost began, but Pitch interrupted.
"I have much bigger plans then ruining the hopes and dreams of children. That's what they are for" He gestured to the Guardians of Fear. "I have moved on to bigger, world changing plans."
"What are you talking about?" North demanded.
"That's a secret, but I will say this; before this week is over, the world as you know it will change forever." Pitch then disappeared into the shadows, and his silhouette began to circle them, his voice fading in and out as he did so.
"Children, I leave them to you, I have matters elsewhere to attend to." And he was gone. The guardian's and Lantern didn't have time to wonder where he had gone to, because at a that moment, the Guardians of fear attacked. Primal lunged at Bunny, who leapt away just in time. Tooth and Sandy were engaged in some form of arial combat. Lose threw punch after punch at North, how was doing his best to avoid fighting back, as well as getting hit. That left the two Jacks to deal with Shock.
The black slime fired hardened spikes of itself at the two Jacks, who, thanks to Frost were able to fly out of the way. Frost fired an icy blast at it, which seemed to work at first, the slime had frozen, but it quickly broke free and continued it's assault.
"That slime is surprisingly tenacious."Lantern said as he threw a fireball at it, which burnt off the lop layer of the slime. As the charred bits of sludge broke apart, Frost and Lantern were shocked to see two children; a boy and a girl passed out in the ashes.
"What the?" Jack asked.
"We can ask questions later." Lantern said throwing more fireballs at Shock. "Get them in the sleigh."
Bunny and Primal were locked in a dead heat. Bunny was faster, but primal was much stronger.
"Crikey!" Bunny said as he dodged a punch from Primal that cracked the cement. "You pack a punch, mate."
Sandy attempted to strike at Lonesome with his sand whips, but the white smoke evaded ever strike. Tooth chased Lonesome down to the street. and cornered her in an ally.
"Give up, you're cornered." Tooth demanded. At that moment, there was the sound clanking metal. They looked, and saw a cat rooting through a dumpster. Without warning Lonesome rushed toward the animal and completely enveloped it. The white smoke absorbing into the animals body completely. The cat's eyes turned pure white, and it hissed at them in a chuckling manner
Realizing what had happened, Tooth and Sandy tried to catch the stray, but it easily evaded the two. It ran out into the street. Tooth and Sandy chased after the possessed cat, but they had no sooner rounded the corner when they were encountered by a man; his eyes were white, and the cat was nuzzling against his legs.
"My turn." The man said, and he threw himself at Tooth and Sandy.
North was having the hardest time of all of them. Despite his swords, and the skills he had with them, North just couldn't bring himself to deliberately harm a child (If indeed he was one.) The boy, Loss, had no such hesitations and threw punch after punch at to get away, North leapt off the roof and onto the road, but Loss followed behind. After landing, Lonesome moved toward a parked car, and picked it up as easily as if it were Styrofoam
"Rimsky-Korsakov." North said, as Lonesome threw the vehicle at him. To protect himself, North threw a snow globe in front of him, creating a portal that the car flew into. Lonesome rushed toward North, ready to throw a punch, when a wall of ice rose between the two.
"These guys are tough." Frost said as he flew down, firing another beam of ice at the slime that was following close behind. They were soon joined by the other three guardians, who were having problems of their own.
"Where's Lantern?" Tooth asked.
"He's guarding the sleigh." Jack replied. That slime thing coughed
"I'll give Pitch this, he went all out with these mates." Bunny said throwing his boomerangs.
Suddenly, Tooth gasped. "The tooth palace. It's is under attack."
"These guys are just a distraction." Jack said.
"We have to go, now. Everyone to the sleigh!" North shouted.
"How do you propose we get to it?"Jack asked
"Leave that to me." Bunny tapped his foot on the ground twice and a rabbit hole opened under their feet. They fell through, and popped up right beside the sleigh, which Lantern was guarding.
"Move, move!" North said, and they all leapt into the sleigh.
"Where did these ankle-biters come from?" Bunny asked seeing the unconscious children in the back, but before either of the Jacks could explain, Shock, the black slime erupted out the sleigh's shadow.
"Crikey!" Bunny shouted as the slime enveloped everything. Just as the slime was about to consume the sleigh and everyone on board, Lantern raised his lantern, and a dazzlingly bright light shined forth, throwing the slime back all over the roof.
"Go, now." Lantern said. With a crack of the reigns, the sleigh took to the air.
TO BE CONTINUED
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I wanted to post in before October was over, but regrettably I kept putting it off. Anyway I hope to get some good reviews, and let me know if you find any spelling or grammar errors for me to fix. See you next time.