Chapter 10: Night of the eclipse, part 2: Lantern's explanation
(8:50 PM forty minutes until totality)
"Where are we?" Bunny asked as the door closed with a snap. He, the other guardians, Lantern and the two children had entered what appeared to be a small convenience store. The only other person there was a pimply faced teenager, who was so immersed in his phone he didn't notice that two children had just walked out of the supply closet; Lantern and the other guardians were invisible to him.
"We're a few miles outside of town." Lantern replied. Without warning, Tooth hit Lantern with a left hook, knocking out one of his right canine.
"Tooth!" North shouted, grabbing her by the arms, before she could throw another punch. "Wait for explanation, then hit him."
"Yes, let me explain." Lantern said, clutching his jaw.
"Why should we listen to you, Lantern?" Bunny said, tightening the grip on his boomerang.
"I just saved you guy's from a slime monster." Lantern said, matter-of-factly.
"You also helped Pitch take all of our homes." Bunny retorted.
"It was the only way I could gain his trust, but other then that I've been helping you guys from he sidelines the entire time."
"What are you talking about?" Frost said, raising his staff to Lantern's throat.
"Who are they talking to?" Jenny asked Tommy out of the corner of her mouth.
"Someone named 'Lantern' apparently." Tommy said, listening to the guardians carefully, trying to get some idea of what was going on.
"Don't you remember what I said to you the day you found out about my betrayal?" Lantern gave his lantern a little flick, and a small stream of flames shot from his lantern and twisted itself into words spelling out: Over the years I've learned to read between the lines, but anyone can see that I don't belong here. I'm learning that Pitch's plans are far more rewarding then being a guardian, and I await instructions on how to proceed forward.
"What's happening?" Jenny asked as the fiery words materialized.
"I don't know." Tommy said, sounding both fascinated and terrified.
"What is this Lantern?" Frost demanded.
"This is what I said to you when we fought." Lantern said. "Didn't it cross your mind what an oddly worded statement that was."
"Ugh." The guardians said in unison.
"'Over the years I've learned to read between the lines.'" Lantern said, pointing at the fiery words, putting emphasis on the underlined parts. "That implies a hidden meaning." He then pointed out the other highlighted words in his fiery message.
"'I don't belong here… I'm learning Pitch's plans…Await instructions on how to proceed forward.' It was all a code. A hidden message to tell you that I was still on your side. Perhaps it was a little to vague, but it was the best I could think of with on the spot, especially with Pitch watching." The other guardians starred at him for a moment. Then Bunny said,
"I don't know mates, this all seems a little too fishy to me."
"I'm telling you, it's the truth. Everything I've done has been to help you all."
"How?" Asked North.
"Remember that fairy that showed up and told you about Pitch's plan for the eclipse? I staged a loud conversation with Pitch that the fairies would over hear. Then I helped one of them escape so she could deliver that information to you. When we met at the South pole, I repeated my hint, but when you still didn't catch on, I had to go into hiding, but not before delivering another bit of information to you."
"What are you babbling on about now?" Bunny said, sounding rather exacerbated.
"Don't you remember what you said to me in Antarctica?"In a burst of flames, Lantern's head transformed into Bunny's head. Jenny and Tommy both screamed, but again, the clerk was to engrossed in his phone to pay any notice.
"You would rather help one of Pitch's ankle biters then the children of the world?." Lantern said with Bunny's voice, before changing back to normal. "and I replied, 'I have found the two to be one in the same.' I have spent time with Pitch's children, and I have found out that the dark guardian known as Loss is actually a child. A child that Pitch abducted and endowed with dark powers."
"How do you know?" North asked.
"Because Loss told me so himself."
The other guardians all look dumbfounded. Meanwhile, Tommy any Jenny were watching the spot where a second Easter Bunnies' disembodied head had appeared and then vanished in a burst of flames. What was going on? Who was Santa and the others talking to. As he thought this, Tommy began to notice that the spot he was starring at began to look looking distorted and blurry, like a heat haze.
"Ok, if what your saying is true, why didn't you tell us this at the South pole?" Frost asked.
"I couldn't run the risk that Pitch might be watching. I thought it best to stage a fight, pass on my knowledge, then disappear." Frost was about the speak again, but Lantern cut him off.
"Listen, we don't have time for this." Lantern pointed at a clock hanging above the cashier. "The Eclipse reaches it peak in forty five minutes. We've got to find Pitch and stop him."
"One last question then." North said. "If you plan was to be a mole, why you not tell us?"
"Your reaction to my 'desertion' gave Pitch the performance needed for me to earn his trust. Also, it kind of felt good to get back at you for all the times you've spoken ill of me." There was a long and uncomfortable silence. Finally, Tooth approached Lantern and said,
"Lantern." Tooth said, drawing forward. "We all regret what we said back then. When the man-in-the-moon chose you to be a guardian, we though he'd made a mistake. But it's clear now that we were the ones who made the mistake." She flew past Lantern and picked up the tooth she had just knocked out. She held it flat in her palm, then she closed her fist and opened it again. The tooth had vanished. A quick probe with of the tongue was all Lantern needed to see that his tooth had been restored.
"Thank yo…"
"Hold that thought mate, we gotta move." Bunny said pointing up. They all looked up and saw black slime oozing from the ceiling panels. Tommy was about to scream, but before he could get a word out, Santa picked him and his sister up, and they all stormed from the building.
"Thank you, come again." The casher said absentmindedly.
"Okay, Lantern." Frost said, firing an ice blast at the slime. "You say your one our side, prove it by taking out this goop."
"I'm trying." Lantern snapped back.
"Tommy, what is going on?" Jenny said, couching her brothers arm so hard it was going numb. The guardians had formed a circle around Tommy and Jenny, yet had left a big gap, which was taken up by the shimmering transparent thing they had seen in the store, and appeared to be shooting balls of fire at the slime.
"I don't know sis. But what ever it is that's protecting us, we're just going to have to believe in it." No sooner had Tommy spoken that sentence then the blurry transparent something burst into flames, reviling itself to be a man. He wore an old fashioned trench coat, had long bright red hair, and was shooting fireballs from a lantern that he was swinging like a club.
"What's the deal Lantern?" Bunny called out. "Last time you fought this stuff you sent it cryin'. What's the problem?"
"it's a lot stronger now, that's the problem." Lantern retorted, his monotone carrying a hint of agitation.
"Well we've got to come up with something." Said Frost. He shot another icy blast at the slime, just as Lantern launched a fireball at the same spot. The two attacks collided and merged into a ball of blue flames, which exploded, covering several square feet in what appeared to be orange ice. The ice then turned grey and crumbled into a fine ash. This display of icy pyrotechnics seemed to have hurt Shock considerably, because it had fallen back at least a dozen feet when the boast made contact
"What?" North began, but Lantern cut him off.
"Bunny, take us to the parking lot of the local high school! Now!" It was an order.
"Mate what are you…"
"Just do it." Bunny stomped the ground twice with his foot, and a giant rabbit hole opened up and they all fell in.
The parking lot of Burgass High School was a a large square stretch of flat pavement. At the moment the place was completely deserted. A moment later, however, a giant hole opened in the middle of the lot, and seven people were thrown out of it.
"Okay mate I brought you here, now can you please tell me why." Bunny snapped.
"Because, I have a plan of how to defeat Shock." Lantern walked to Frost. "But I can't do it without your help, my friend." Frost look at Lantern for a moment then said,
"What ever you need." Lantern smiled, then slipped the handle of his lantern through the loop of Frost's staff so that it was it hung on the nub of wood sticking up from the bass of the staff.
No sooner had Lantern secured his lantern then they all heard the sound of thick glutinous liquid oozing out of the shadows all around them. By the glow of the lantern, the guardians saw that they were surrounded by mounds of slime at least four stories tall.
"Frost, the only way to beat it is together." Lantern said, and he took hold of the staff. A warmth spread through Frost's hands. It was a if a small fire were burning within the wood. Sure enough, the staff; which normally glowed with a blue aura, was now glowing a dazzling shade of orange, and the lantern on the end had changed to blue, and was chilling the air around it. The two Jacks raised the staff high into the air and slammed it down hard on the ground, just as Shock was about to engulf them all.
An explosion of blue fire erupted from the point where the staff hit the ground. the flames spread out in all directions, completely engulfing the black slime. When the flames died, Shock was reviled to be covered in orange ice; like frozen fire. The ice then turned grey, and with the sound of shattering glass, crumbled into a fine ash that fell down upon them like snow.
"Wow, that was awesome!" Tommy said in awe. "Jack, your incredible."
"You hear that Frost." Lantern said as he removed his lantern from Frost's staff. "You have an admirer."
"Actually, I was talking to you." Tommy replied. Lantern looked at Tommy, and then to the others.
"Which one of you is he talking too?"
"He means you silly." Jenny chimed in. "You, the guy wearing the mask." Lantern froze. He starred at the children, and while it was hard to read his mood because of the mask, he looked startled, almost fearful.
"What's going on?" He said, his voice shaking.
"Lantern, they see you. The real you" North said with delight.
"But they can't be seeing me, I'm not in disguise. No one but you lot should be able to see me like this."
"Well we can, Jack O'Lantern." Tommy said, enunciating Lantern's name and taking him by the hand. Frost and the other guardians had expected Lantern to be surprised delighted to be seen by these children. On the contrary, he seemed frightened, his lantern rattled as he trembled.
"H…how? When?" Was all he could say.
"Well, I couldn't see you in the store, at least not all of you. But when you guys started to fight that ooze, and you were throwing fireball, that's when I could see you for real.
"But how, and why could you see me then?"
"I don't know. I just knew that some unknown something was protecting us, and that I needed to believe in it, and then, poof "
"Me too." Jenny added.
"You saw…me" Lantern said, more to himself than anyone else "when you believed in…the unknown." He spoke those last words in barely more then a whisper. "That's it."
"What's it?" Frost asked. Lantern turned to face the others.
"When we first met, you asked me what my center was. Throughout this whole ordeal, I hadn't given that question a second thought. But now, thanks to these children, I now know the answer. My center is The Unknown. I am the guardian, of mystery."
"Look." Tooth was pointing at the mounds of ash and debris that had been left behind from the Jack's finishing attack. countless children were crawling out of the Shock's burnt remains.
"What happened?" A black girl said with a cough.
"Where am I?" Said a boy to her right.
"Look!" Another boy called out, pointing at the guardians.
"It's Santa."
"And the Tooth fairy."
"The Easter bunny."
"The Sandman."
"Jack Frost."
"But who is that guy in the mask?"
"He's Jack O'Lantern!" Jenny said proudly.
"And he's mine." This new voice sent shivers down everyones spines. It was cold, and full of quiet hate and malice. They all turned, and saw Loss. His expression was no longer empty and emotionless. His expression was that of pure rage, and his glare made even Frost shiver.
"Mates, I have a feeling were in for a real rumble now." Bunny said.
(9:10 PM twenty minutes until totality)
I hope you all enjoyed my latest chapter. Well, it's official, Lantern's center is mystery. I though to myself ' Halloween is a time to celebrate the strange and mysterious. The time when we seek out the things that scare us, and what scares us more then the unknown.
This chapter actually prompted me to go back and look at some of my previous chapters, and that made me notice some problems with the timing of the eclipse, I needed to fix that. I'm not sure when the next chapters will be up, but they will be worth the wait.