Hello again. It's good to be back. Before getting into the chapter, I just want to make one little bit of information cannon. In case it isn't obvious, Lantern's signature color is Orange. For those of you who don't know, each Guardian has a signature color. North is red, Sandy is Gold, Bunny is green, Tooth is Pinkish-purple, Pitch is obviously black, and Frost is blue. I tell you this to emphasize that Frost and Lantern are foils for each other . (orange and blue are opposites on the color wheel With that said, let's dive right in.
Chapter 9: Night of the eclipse. part 1: Battle of the beasts
(Burgess 8:10 PM one hour and twenty minutes until totality)
It was Friday night, and Tommy and Jenny Bennet were both on the roof of their house. After many hours of pleading that they were responsible, and pointing out that tomorrow was the weekend and that their house was only a single story they had managed to convince their parents to let them stay up past curfew to watch the eclipse.
"This is going to be so cool." Tommy said, as he peered through his father's telescope. The sky was clear and the light pollution was minimum. While Tommy was star gazing, his sister was more interested in eating the snacks they had brought up with them. "Come on Jenny, this is cool. The moon is going to go dark, and then it's going to turn red, it's going to be amazing."
"You just wanted an excuse to stay up past bedtime." Tommy was about to respond, when a strange whooshing sound came from over head. They both looked up in time to see a large something fly overhead. Tommy poked through the telescope, and saw that it was a sleigh pulled by several large reindeer. He watch as the sleigh flew down low, a with a trail of golden sand falling behind, landed somewhere in the down town area.
"What was that?" Jenny asked.
"I knew it wasn't a dream." Tommy said to himself.
"What?"
"Forget the eclipse. Were going to go watch something even cooler."
The guardians touched down in downtown Burgess. In the days following Lantern's attack, the guardians had done what they could to help as many children as they could. They had many tussles with the nightmares, but nothing they couldn't handle. What they found more interesting was that they hadn't seen Lantern or any of Pitch's children: they assumed that he was keeping them in reserve for this very night.
"Good idea putting everyone to sleep Sandy." Said Bunny, Sandy gave him the thumbs up. Realizing that Downtown Burgess would probably be crowded at this hour on a Friday, Sandy used his dreamland to put everyone into an enchanted sleep; a train whistle couldn't wake them in this state.
North looked at a nearby clock tower: it was a little after six o'clock. He looked up and saw that the outer edge of the moon was already beginning to darken.
"Come on out Pitch!" Frost shouted into the night. "We know you're here."
"Jack, don't provoke him." Tooth said warningly. "we need to be carful."
"Sorry Tooth." Jack said, scratching a sudden itch on his scalp.
"Welcome Guardians." Pitch's voice sounded from everywhere. "I'm so glad you could join us on this soon to be historic night." They looked up, and there he was: on top of a nearby apartment complex, his three remaining children at his side.
"Where's Lantern Pitch?" Bunny asked. "You bump him for not finishing us off?
"What are you talking about rabbit?" Pitch asked. "Your the ones who 'bumped him off'. I haven't seen him since he left to fight you."
"Who are they talking about about? Jenny asked he brother. The two had managed to bike downtown without anyone noticing, and were now watching this strange scene.
"I don't know?" Replied Tommy. "But he must be someone important.
"Well, no matter." Pitch said. "Children, please keep our friends occupied for the next hour or so." With that Pitch sunk into the shadows, and he dark guardians advanced. Loss leapt at North and Tooth. Shock propelled itself at Frost and Sandy., and Primal pounced at Bunny.
"Oh crikey!" Bunny said as he dodged a swing from one of Primal's fists. He then retaliated with a series of kicks, but they were useless against Primal's bulk.
"Heheh." Primal chuckled, as he took another swing at Bunny; this time his attack made contact. Bunny was knocked into the air and landed with a loud thud on top of a car.
"Give up rodent, you can't beat me." Primal said, his voice was low and raspy, more like a growl then anything else.
"Crikey mate, you're more beastly then I was before I was a guardian." Bunny said as he rolled off the car roof and onto the pavement.
"Once father becomes the moon, and I become a guardian, I'll be an example for all." Primal said, advancing on Bunny. "All of this culture and sophistication will be no more. Only instinct will keep people alive, and I'm the one who will bring it out of them."
"Well, I have hope that that's never gonna happen." Bunny replied, standing up and clutching his ribs. He tapped the ground twice with his foot, and a rabbit hole opened up in front of him. Bunny leapt in, just as Primal threw a punch that rolled over the car that Bunny had just landed on. Primal stood still, listening intensively, but the sounds of the other's battles were drowning out everything else.
SMACK!
Primal staggered as something hard collided with his head. He turned just in time to see Bunny standing on the roof of a building. He had no sooner caught his Boomerang before he leapt down another rabbit hole. He repeated this strategy another five times before Primal bellowed. "Enough!"
The dark guardian hunched over, and a sickening crack filled the air. Bunny watched as the flesh on Primal's back began to squirm, like something was struggling to get out. Next second a giant pair of bat wings erupted from Primal's body, in a shower of hair.
"Oh f…." But before bunny could finish his sentence, Primal leapt into the air and in less time then it took to blink, he had crossed the distance between them, and pinned Bunny down on the grown.
"Like my new toys?" Primal said, baring his teeth in what must have been a smile. "Ive gotten a lot stronger, which has allowed me to make some new playthings, like these.." Primal raised his free hand, and a sharp, six inch claws burst from each of his gorilla fingers.
He raised his hand, but before he could swipe, Bunny tapped the ground with his foot. A giant rabbit hole opened up beneath them, and the two were sucked down a long earthy tunnel.
Primal let go as the two rolled over and over. Moments later, Primal was thrown upward, into blinding sunlight. His eyes were so overwhelmed by the light he wasn't able to stop Bunny from kicking him in the face. Eyes finally adjusted, Primal saw that they were on top of a mountain surrounded by flat desolate grass land.
"Beasty, welcome to Ayers Rock." Bunny said with a smile.
"Make's no difference to me where we fight. Primal growled "I'll still finish you." He flew at Bunny, but this time Bunny was prepared. He stomped on the ground, and went down another rabbit hole. Before Primal could realize what happened, Bunny leapt out of the ground behind him and threw his boomerangs at Primal's back.
CRACK!" The boomerangs hit there mark dead on. Primal's wings now hung limply at his side; floppy and useless.
"Why you!" Primal swiped a claw, but Bunny dodged, grabbed Primal by the forearm, and threw him over his shoulder. Bunny stomped on the ground again and another rabbit hole opened up beneath Primal. Before the the dark guardian was sucked down however, he slashed out at Bunny's leg's
"GAHH!" Bunny fell to the ground, clutching at his shins. Finally regaining some composure, he got up and hobbled over to the ledge and looked down: his tunnel had lead right over the side of the mountain.
"Oh Crikey." Bunny said bitterly. Primal had not fallen, but had sunk his claws into the sandstone and was now climbing up the mountain side. Instinctively, Bunny reached for one of his boomerangs, but he dropped both of them them when Primal clawed his legs. He was about to crawl toward them, when he had a flash of inspiration.
Primal looked up at the mountain peak, thoughts of rabbit meat on his mind, He was about ten feet from the top, when a hail of dirt rocks and debris were thrown over the side. He averted his eyes, but the rain of pebbles was nothing more then a mild nuisance.
"That was pathetic, you rod…" But his thought was interrupted by the sight of a beautifully decorated egg falling toward him. It was eye level with him when he noticed a small spark at the end of it. It was a fuse, and it had just burnt out.
BOOOOM! Once the explosion had subsided, Bunny looked back over the edge, and saw a cloud of blue smoke drifting up toward him. "Toodle-oo mate." he said with a grin.
(Burgess 8:33 PM fifty-seven minutes until totality)
"Where is Lantern." Loss said as he ripped a street light out of the ground and swung it like a baseball bat at the two guardians.
"We told you, we don't know where he is." Tooth said, flying out of reach of Loss' attacks.
"Liar, you destroyed him, and now I'm going to avenge him!" Loss bellowed. North and Tooth both stunned by this sudden surge of emotion. Before this, Loss had been quiet and withdrawn, seemingly emotionless. They had never even heard him speak until now.
"You really care about Lantern, don't you." North said, dropping his swords a little.
"He was my friend. The only one of I've ever opened up to." Loss said. As North and Tooth started to take in this strange pronouncement, Loss glared at them and said, with another violent swing of the street light.
"Why didn't you help me? If your job is to protect children, how come you let me and so many others suffer?"
"You mean you were…are…" North said with dawning comprehension.
"A child that you were suppose to protect." Loss interrupted.
"What did Pitch do to you? You poor boy." Tooth asked as she flew down low, arms out stretched as if to hug him.
"He saved me, something you should have done long ago." Loss said as he threw the street light, Hitting Tooth right in the midriff, and knocking her to the ground.
"My boy." North said as he rushed to check on Tooth. "I understand how you feel, but there is a limit to what we can do, and we can not get directly involved in what goes on in the world."
"That's what Lantern said." Loss said, as he lifted a nearby Hummer over his head. "But I just think you guardians just aren't the protectors you claim to be." and he threw the car down onto the two.
Confident of his victory, Loss lifted up the car, but all he found was shards of glass and broken metal.
"Thank you Bunny." Tooth said. Just before Loss had dropped the car, Bunny opened on of his tunnels and brought her and North several blocks away.
"Your welcome Tooth." Bunny replied with a wince of pain.
"Bunny, what happened?" North said, Noticing Bunny's injured legs.
"Let's just that Pitch's ankle bitter didn't go down without a fight. What about you two?"
"I'm alright, just a little winded." Tooth said, clutching her side.
"I as well." Added North. "But we are running out of time. Look." Bunny and Tooth looked up and saw that about a quarter of the moon had darken.
"Tommy I don't like this. I want to go home." Jenny said, tugging at her brothers sleeve. The brother and sister had managed to follow Jack frost and the Sandman without being noticed, and were currently watching the two in question battling a giant black blob.
"No way." Tommy said, yanking his sleeve away. "I need to see this." The two siblings had followed Jack Frost and the Sandman and were watching them fighting a giant black blob
"Ug, this goo just won't give up." Frost shouted. His attacks were slowing down the slime, but it was too big to be froze completely. Sandy wasn't fairing much better. He lashed at Shock with his sand whips, but this just annoyed it more then anything else.
"I'm starting to think that Manny wanted us to recruit Lantern because he's the only who can hurt this thing." Jack felt another tingling sensation moving across his scalp. As he scratched the irritant, he saw in the corner of his eye the two children watching the battle.
"Get out of here! Your not safe." Seeing who Frost was talking to the slime Launched it's self into the air in a high arch and dived right for the kids.
"Run!" Tommy shouted. As the two ran down the street, they noticed more black slime oozing out of the shadows all around them. Each time they changed direction, the goo appeared in front of them; they had to make several sharp turn in order to avoid it. In their panicked state, they ran into a dead end ally, and the only other exit was a locked door.
"Tommy, I'm scarred." Jenny said hugging her brother.
"Me too Jenny." Tommy returned the hug.
"Don't worry you little ankle biters." Came an voice with an Australian accent." Well protect you. Next thing they knew, the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy leapt down from the roof to stand between then and the black slime.
"Yeah, were the guardians." They all looked up and saw Jack and Sandy. "Protecting children is our job." As Frost and Sandy took their places beside his fellow guardians, a flea scuttled out of Frost's hair to rest on his forehead. A flea wearing an smaller collar around it's thorax.
A tendril rose from the mass of black slime, and took the shape of a dragon's head.
"Well, then you will fall doing your jobs." It said in a disgusting, wet sounding voice, and threw itself at it's cornered targets. At the same time, the flea on Frost's forehead jumped, and launched a giant fireball at the black slime.
"What was that?" Tommy said, with a cough. As the smoke cleared, the guardians looked and saw Lantern standing in front of them.
"Lantern!" Frost said raising his staff.
"We don't have time for that Frost." Lantern said urgently. He pushed his way through the others and knocked twice on the locked door, which sprung open. "Get inside!"
"What's going on?" Jenny said. Unlike the guardians, she and Tommy couldn't see Lantern in his true form.
"If you think were going to trust you Lantern." Tooth began, but Lantern cut her off.
"It's coming! get in now!" True enough, Shock had recomposed itself from Lanterns ambush, and lunged again. Before it could make contact however, Sandy encased them in a shell of gold sand.
"That won't hold it for long! Every, through the door, NOW." Lantern shouted.
"Why should we trust you?" North said, raising his sword.
"Because if you don't, you'll have to face that." He said, pointing to the wall of sand, through which the black slime was already beginning to ooze. There was moments silence, then…
The shell of sand collapsed, and Lantern, the guardians and the children had all gone. Shock was startled by his prey's sudden disappearance, but not as much as Loss, who had been watching everything from an adjacent rooftop. The chocolate bar Lantern had given him crushed in his hand.
To be continued.
I hope you all enjoyed this chapter, if you did leave me a review, some constructive critiques wont go unappreciated either. I was actually surprised how hard it was to write. I ended up coming up with a lot of stuff on the fly, which is usually not my style, but sometimes you've jot got to improvise. See you next time.