Chapter Text
Quiet.
….
…..
……
All was quiet in the room.
….
…..
……
Broken only by the sounds of a young boy waking up from his sleep after passing out. The boy awakens from his slumber, groaning and clutching his throbbing head as if he’d been clubbed over the head with a blunt instrument. After a while, the pain went away and he tried to gain his bearings, get a sense of his situation. First, he tried to think back to his last memories before everything went black. He and his friends had just seen a showing of Terry Gilliam’s movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen at the local cinema in the Lower East Manhattan and they were all heading for the subway to head back home to the Bronx when suddenly, a flash of light it them all at once and this strange portal sucked them up off the ground, sending them twirling about in an endless void of cosmic space before suddenly, darkness consumed them. And now here he was, looking around and not really understanding where he actually was. This new environment was foreign to him and it seemed a tad dark and yet of interesting architectural design, the likes of which he’d never seen before. Though, it begged a burning question in the back of his mind, what if he got sent to the Zone again? What if he’s been taken to a new realm for a different pantheon of gods like the Greek perhaps?
A mostly valid question he would’ve had time to think of a plausible answer for had his train of thought not been derailed by the sudden cold feeling on his arm. A very cold hand clutched his arm and made nearly jump out of his skin and he came face-to-face with a young man who looked to be about his age with pale alabaster skin, snowy white hair, wearing a blue hoodie with frost over the chest in a facsimile to a snowflake and brown pants and he was barefoot. The pale boy jumped as well as the first boy did, caught off guard by his reaction as if he was expecting something else.
“It’s alright, kid. Can…….can you see me?” The snowy boy asked incredulously.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?” The boy said, befuddled by this odd question.
“Well, I……”
Kris Bengtsson eyed the other boy strangely as he looked incredibly shocked, mixed with excitement, laced with mild surprise and equal parts confused like he was either afraid he wouldn’t be seen or hoping he would be. Whatever the case there, they both looked all around, both confused as to where they were, how they got there and why they were there.
“You have any idea where we are?” Kris asked the snow-haired boy known as Jack Frost.
“No clue. You’re guess is as good as mine.” He shrugged, then started to notice something. Something he seemed to be missing. “Wait. Where’s my staff?”
“You’re what?”
“My staff.”
“Hang on a minute, are you a god, too?” Kris asked him curiosity, with a sneaking suspicion that this stranger in his company could either be in cahoots with whatever pantheon of deities that brought him here or maybe it was him alone.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Kris! There you are!”
There was no time for Kris to answer, for he turned away to see his friends coming over to him after apparently waking up themselves, regrouping and finding their way back to him. Stig, Roar and Rudolf all rushed to Kris’s side and the four pals embraced each other.
“Just what the hell happened?!” Roar shrieked, wanting answers just as much as the rest.
“Did we die?” Rudolf asked, looking all around. “Is this Helheim? Because it certainly looks that way. But for some reason, I don’t feel so cold. And I don’t see any dead bodies lying around?”
“What’s he mean by that?” Jack asked, jumping into the conversation.
“Uh, who are you? Did you bring us here?” asked Roar, adjusting his glasses.
“No! I woke up here, too, like you guys did!” defended Jack.
“Are you another god from Asgard too?” Stig demanded snarkily.
“Okay, again, what’s this god stuff all about?” Jack retorted impatiently at being kept in the dark.
“Don’t answer that.”
Kris opened his mouth to answer, but was stopped by a new voice that none of them recognized. There he was, the owner of the Sanctum Infinitum, Kade himself standing there in all his glory, glad to see his guests awake and on their feet. None of the boys had a single idea who this mysterious character was, but they had a good idea he might have something to do with their conundrum because clutched tightly in his hand was Jack’s staff.
“Oh, good, you guys are finally awake. You guys took longer than the others.” Kade informed them.
“Hey, that’s my staff!” Jack complained, ignoring what he just said when he saw it on his person.
“Oh, yes. That. Sorry, it’s just that I was waiting for you to awaken.” Kade nonchalantly and falsely stated. “Actually, no. It was more of a precaution, really.”
“Fálki lið!” Stig shouted briskly and angrily, raising his arms to cast an attack spell on Kade, but to his surprise and Jack’s puzzlement, nothing happened. Kade, however, was completely unfazed as he stood there unflinchingly.
“What was that?” Jack perturbedly asked with a light deadpan.
“That’s the precaution, I’m afraid.” explained Kade, handing Jack back his staff, which he snatched back in irritation. “See, I don’t want any horseplay going on around here, so I kinda disable everyone’s powers and abilities. No magic allowed.”
“What?!” Stig balked.
“You gotta be kidding! You mean I can’t fly or make snow?” Jack complained as well, though more concerned than angry.
“I will limit this only to breaks and intermissions. But more on that later. Anyway, let me start over.” Kade cleared his throat to appear more welcoming in the hopes of assuaging any intimidation they feel towards him. “Welcome, my friends to the Sanctum Infinitum, my humble abode. I will be your host for this event. Please refer to me as Kade.”
“Okay.” Kris expressed tiredly with resignation.
“Hi, I’m Rudolf!” said the young lad, immediately forgetting their troubling situation.
“I know who all of you are.” The young godlike entity reminded him.
“You do?”
“Yes. See, I’m something of a god…..-ish-like being that is beyond any capable human comprehension. You are in a realm outside of space and time itself. Reality in this realm bends to my will and my will alone. The rules here are mine to make and break.” Kade explained to them.
“So you’re the one who brought us here?” surmised Stig, annoyed.
“Yes, that is correct. And I apologize for the surprises and the abductions. I assure you, it was done with no sinister intentions.”
“And why are we here, exactly, uh,......?”
“Kade.”
“Kade?” Jack asked.
“And what did you mean by ‘others’, dare I ask?” Stig sassed, crossing his arms.
“Ah, yes. If you’ll just come with me and we'll regroup with the rest. Get everyone acquainted and so on before we start.” said the young host as he hovered above the ground and had them follow his lead down the hallway and they reluctantly did as they were told.
“Start what?” Roar asked.
“All in good time.”
No more words were exchanged after that, because this situation they’ve been put in was much too out-of-nowhere and out of the ordinary even for them, so they put everything to rest for now and trust Kade enough to provide the explanations they require in due time. For now, all they had to do is meet up with the others their gracious host had spoken about. Along the way, the five let their wandering eyes survey the curious place they were in. The Sanctum Infinitum was truly a spectacular looking place. Not too bad of a place to be snatched up and tossed into.
“So how did you get here?” Kris asked the snowy boy with them.
“Uh, it’s kinda crazy, but, uh, I was flying around with my staff, bringing winter everywhere when suddenly, sparks and lightning appeared out of nowhere and so did this portal thing which sucked me and then-”
“Everything went black.” Kris finished for him, nodding in understanding. “Same here.”
“We had just seen that new Terry Gilliam movie in theaters, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen when that portal appeared.” Roar explained thoroughly, pushing up his glasses.
“The Adventures of……? Never heard of it.” The baffled Jack shook his head.
“What do you mean?” Rudolf cried, dismayed. “You gotta check it out sometime.”
“I don’t really watch very many movies…….uh, myself.” Jack calmly answered.
“Well, you’re about to now.” Kade responded, butting into the conversation with a mischievous gleam in his eyes quite eccentrically.
“Wait, what?” piped the snow-haired one, taken completely aback.
Without answering and much to their chagrin, Kade casually led them over to the top of a very, very, very tall flight of stairs that seemed to be four stories tall like the steps to an Aztec temple and stretched to about 50’ meters in width. It would seem to take forever to climb up and down those steps without collapsing from exhaustion.
“Oh, man……” Rudolf complained, heaving a sigh.
“No worries. By the way, I must apologize in advance.” Kade remarked as he stood behind them all with a sneaky grin on his face.
All of the sudden, neither one of them was given the chance to react for the godlike boy then gave all of them a great big shove, pushing them all down the stairs. But at the last minute, the steps retracted into the ground to form a flat surface like a slide and the gobsmacked five were left sliding down together, all yelling in shock and fear from the instant adrenaline coursing through their veins as they slid downwards in breakneck speed. The slide appeared to stretch even longer and longer and form a spiral that took its unwilling passengers down in a spinning circles once, twice, thrice and two more times before they at last reached the bottom, but there was nothing soft below to help cushion their fall, so the unlucky few were left tumbling and rolling across the hard floor and onto each other. And as they groaned in pain, Kade was standing right there, smirking at them before chuckling.
“Oh, your faces were so worth it!” He cackled and wheezed. “Pardon me on that one, but I couldn’t help myself there.”
“Ow….” Kris deadpanned.
“Hey, f*ck you!” Stig screamed angrily at Kade, giving them the finger.
“Why did Jamie think this was fun?” Jack grumbled to himself under his breath, while lifting himself up painfully, but then Roar accidentally pressed down on his head trying to get up, emitting an exclamation in pain.
“Sorry.” Roar removed his hand from him.
“Look, I just wanted to put a little respite on this journey for you guys.” explained Kade gently and calmly.
“Well, getting pushed down a long-ass slide and falling on my ass is not my concept of fun, asshole!” The goth rebel barked at him, glaring hotly.
“Again! I wanna go again!” Rudolf cheered like a child at an amusem*nt park.
“No, you don’t!” hissed Stig in rebuttal.
“Just one mor- Hey, what gives?!”
Yes, indeed, he was right to be flabbergasted as were the rest for when they looked into Rudolf’s direction, they all noticed that the slide they were shoved down into against their will was gone and in its place, the tall flight of steps from before that they were now at the bottom of. Such a mind-boggling, spine-tingling and inconceivable spectacle you don’t see everyday.
“Believe me, I don’t like taking the stairs either, myself. Anyway, we’re here.” Kade motioned them over to the large doorways while the five scrambled to their feet and followed them with much of a choice in the matter.
“What even is this place?” Stig shook his head. “And yet, I’ve seen weirder.”
“Me too.” Jack admitted. “You’ll get used to it, though.”
“Way ahead of you.” droned Kris intuitively.
Kade smiled to himself as he telekinetically pushed the doors open, which introduced his guests to a particularly large foyer-like room that was huge in scale where everyone else was gathered. And to be frank, there were a large number of them. Jack and the boys were met with a very odd surprise to see a vast quantity of strange individuals all stacked in one room together and make no mistake, so many of them were interesting within reason while some raised so many questions on who they were, what they were and where they originated from. For the most part, Jack was pleasantly surprised to see such strange new faces as he scanned the room in search of ones he recognized, the boys were befuddled and utterly unable to comprehend the nature of the other guests of this unusual locale. Their eyes scanned the room, curiously undressing each and every one of them with their inspecting gazes down to a miniscule level to help themselves gain a better insight into what their stories were.
To start things off, there were a bunch of Hispanic people, most likely a family, wearing very bright and loud South American attires seemingly relevant to perhaps either the 1960’s or 1950’s with one side adorned with warm colors and the other with cool colors and what a fantastical bunch they were as a matter of fact. One of them was this giant, muscular woman of Amazonian physique, there was one woman on the warm side who kept pacing and fiddling her hair nervously and one girl with long dark hair wearing a mishmash mess of a dress with a splatter of various colors as if she had lost a paintball fight. There were other families there too as it so seemed like one that were accompanied by humanoid androids, one Asian family with women all dressed in green clothes, apart from the one younger girl - the daughter no doubt - who had bright red hair in stark contrast to the black hair everyone else in the family had. And with that girl were three other girls and a boy. The three girls the redhead was with were dressed in colors of yellow, green and purple. Another family looked fish-like based on their blue skin and tentacle-like hair, another Asian family looking much more informal and average than the previous one but this was one was joined a glowing porcupine-looking creature, a couple of oddly-shaped toy-like beings, three Asian teens in the presence of a large white furry beast, a group of teens with what could possibly be a robot which had a round white body and tiny black dot eyes, there was a blue furry dragon, a girl with pink hair and clothes who was checking everyone out with a manic expression on her face and so, so many more. Other noteworthy examples of these vastly otherworldly quests where another Asian lady who probably stood about a foot taller than the adults who wore a red regal dress, looking like a luxurious queen of unwavering nobility and pride with a jade crescent moon perched in her delicately-worn black hair. There were also two purple-skinned demons - one skinny and one fat and wearing traditional prison garb; black-and-white stripes.
And much like the five boys were when they were dragged here out of the blue, everyone looked as if they were lost, some were confused, some were scared, some were trying to remain calm, parents were comforting their children, many were asking desperate questions amongst themselves as they attempted to get their bearings as well and trying to better understand their situations. Obviously, it wasn’t much of a walk in the park for any of these people either and who could possibly blame them.
“Merciful lord, we’ve joined the circus.” Stig grunted with a tired shake of his head, massaging his temples.
“Or a zoo.” Kris jabbed.
“Well done, I think you boys will fit right in just perfectly.” Kade replied boisterously with a sassy sense of humor as he slowly headed back for the doors they entered through. “Now you all just hang tight for a while, get comfy, play nice and get acquainted with one another before we get started. I just need to make a few last arrangements. I’ll be back.”
“Wha-? Hey! Wait a minute!”
His final words to them before he shut the doors closed with a resounding slam that echoed off the walls. This made the five boys panic as they ran back to catch up with Kade again to complain, but instead, they wound up running face first into a large wall and falling to the ground in pain. Like with the stairs before, the door that was just there before had disappeared, leaving only a solid, impenetrable wall.
“Why does he need to do that?” argued Kris.
“Has that wall been there?” asked Rudolf in his usual brand of intelligence.
“This happened to you before?” Stig asked Jack sardonically.
“It…….does bring me back.” He answered, remembering that one time when he was snatched up by yetis and thrown into a sack.
With no other choice, they stood back up and went to go get social with all the others. But there were so many people here that they didn’t recognize. So together, they ventured down some steps and onto the main floor where everyone else was huddled in one single, giant space. As the boys looked all around at the many unique individuals surrounding them, the first people to approach them were members of the Hispanic family limited to an older woman with a black sash around her shoulders, a motherly woman with dark brown curly hair in a messy updo and wearing a tiffany blue dress and apron, her husband; a fancily-dressed gentleman with glasses and a pencil-thin mustache and the woman from the warm side with fair skin and curled red hair, absolutely nervous and worried, not just for herself, but her whole family.
“Oh, um, le pido perdón, por favor, young man, but do you have any idea of what is happening?” Alma Madrigal asked Kris desperately in the hopes of obtaining clarity.
“I knew they were Spanish.” Rudolf snickered to himself, which earned him a hard smack across the head from an annoyed Stig, much to the surprise of the adults.
“Shut up.”
“Young man, what was that for?” Julieta Madrigal demanded like a strict parent reprimanding her child.
Kris stopped his brother from responding in his usual abrasiveness and stepped up to speak on behalf of his friends.
“Excuse them, ma’am, but we don’t know anything.” He answered honestly. “We kinda just woke up here a minute ago.”
“But you must have some idea of what this place is.” The elder matriarch pressed anxiously.
“Lady, we just got here.” Stig grumpily retorted.
“Hombre joven, try and put yourself in our shoes. Mi familia is quite distressed, I’m distressed, you have no idea of what we’ve just been through.”
“Unlikely.” Kris droned with a deadpan. “Believe me or not, I thought we were abducted by the gods.”
“Qué?” Julieta chirped, eyebrow lifted in confusion. “What does that entail?”
“Don’t look at me.” Jack waved off in boredom. “They got this weird god thing going on.”
“Who might you be, young man?” Julieta asked him next.
“And where are your shoes?” Agustín asked, eyeing his bare feet.
“Mi amor.” His wife sighed, putting a gentle hand to his shoulder as if reminding not to be rude.
“I don’t like wearing shoes and I don’t really have to wear them.” Came forth the curt response of Jack Frost, shrugging.
Then suddenly, Rudolf bursted out laughing for some reason as he belted out loud, obnoxious laughter, clutching his sides while everyone looked at him strangely. Nobody with a brain cell understood what he was cackling about.
“Um…….” Julieta and Agustín pulled faces with no way of expressing their uncertainty by the boy’s peculiar behavior.
“What….what so funny?” Pepa asked him, almost a bit irked that the dim simpleton appeared not to be taking things seriously.
“Hey, what’s the matter with you?” Stig grabbed him and shook him.
“I just thought of this funny joke, it tickled my brain just thinking about it.” The Inuit boy grinned a dopey smile. “Just a minute….”
He then proceeded to punch his head a couple times, making the adults even more muddled by his behavior while Stig just shook his head with a sarcastic smile.
“It’s late on a summer Tuesday in Pittsburgh and the lion says ‘Why can’t the chicken lay a scrambled egg for the farmer?’”
Pause for effect……
.
.
.
.
“I’d make a loaf of bread, but the dog ate it!” And with that he smiled a big smile like an on-stage entertainer expecting a standing ovation from his audience.
He did not, however.
Kris facepalmed, Roar winced and sent a nervous smile towards the Madrigals and Jack had no words to say, neither did the Latin adults with them.
“Remarkable.” Stig jabbed with a lack of amusem*nt and then punched his stomach, then his head in quick succession.
“Is he okay?” Agustín asked the winter spirit, wincing even moreso.
“I just met these guys, so I don’t know.” Jack shrugged, exhaustedly.
“Do you guys think this is a game? Is this really a good time to be cracking jokes?!” Pepa erupted with impatience and irritation, marching forward before her sister or brother-in-law had a chance to stop her as she aimed a fiery glance at the boys, then grabbing at Stig’s shoulders, shaking him violently. “I have just been sucked up into a vortex thing, mi familia is scared out of their wits, my children are scared, my gift is gone and now we’re-!!!”
“Hermana, stop it!” Julieta finally came to Stig’s aid to rip her sister off him.
“Hey, back the f*ck up, lady!” Stig hissed at her. “And keep your damn mittens off me!”
“Watch your mouth, mister!” Pepa roared, glaring hotly. “You don’t ever speak that way to an adult!”
“Pepa, please! Calm down!” Alma thundered at her before settling down to a more comforting tone. “Recuerda las palabras. Piensa en tus hijos.”
“Clear skies, clear skies, clear skies……” Taking a deep breath, Pepa eased herself out of her fury and massaged her temples to take a moment to calm herself down. Then Jack stepped in to try and play peacemaker.
“Look, I’m just as dismayed about this as you all are.” He told them all. “But let’s try to familiarize ourselves with this new location. And the person responsible for bringing us here doesn’t have any bad intentions in mind. I’m sure.”
“How can you be sure? We don’t know him, we don’t know this place and we don’t know why we’re here.” Julieta reminded him matter-of-factly.
“By the way, what did you mean by ‘gift’, if I may ask?” Roar questioned.
“Well, we……”
“It’s better you don't know that, young man. Nothing that concerns you at the moment.” Alma intercepted her daughter’s attempt to answer.
“And if I may ask, what on earth are you boys wearing?” Agustín asked, gesturing to the four teen boys' attires that were different from his and his family’s. “Never seen garments like those back in Colombia. Where exactly are you from?”
“Bronx.” Kris succinctly replied.
“Where’s that?”
“New York.”
“Where’s that?”
“Boys, what is the last you remember before waking up here?” Julieta interrupted, speaking with maternal concern. “Where are your parents?”
“Well, my mom is in the middle of shift at her job at Mt. Sinai at the moment…….I think.” said Kris. “And we had just seen a movie at the cinema before we got here.”
“I don’t…….I don’t quite understand.”
“Uh, excuse me, sorry!” Just then, another boy came rushing over to them, panting. “Sorry. My name is Barney Pudowski and I’m looking for my B-Bot!”
“You’re what now?” Kris quizzed.
“My B-Bot?” The dweebish-looking boy nervously reiterated. Nobody understood his meaning, but that’s to be expected. “B. Bot? As in ‘robot’?”
“Robot?” Rudolf perked up suddenly at the word. “Like, an actual robot? Wait a minute, is it going to become sentient, turn evil and try to kill all of humanity? Oh my god, does that mean we’re gonna invent time travel?! ”
“Damn it, Rudolf.” Stig groaned.
“E-...WHY DOES HE KEEP MAKING RIDICULOUS STUFF UP?!?!!!” bellowed Pepa in outrage and annoyance by the boy’s slow-wittedness.
“Hermana, por favor.”
“What? No!” Barney corrected. “He’s, like, this, um, tiny white pill-shaped thing with stubby arms, wheel for feet and he’s wearing a-”
“Oh, is that him over there?” Rudolf eagerly pointed outward and Barney turned around to see the aforementioned robot of that exact description standing far away from them, speaking with a young professionally-dressed woman with black hair in a bun standing with a young girl, inarguably her daughter by the looks of it.
“Ron!” Having found him, Barney went sprinting over to him, leaving the others befuddled.
“That is so peculiar.” Alma mumbled with a combination of wonder and perplexity.
“This I wanna see right now!” Exploding with enthusiasm, Rudolf took off to go check out the robot for himself. He paid Alma no mind when she lifted a hand to stop him, but she was successful of course.
“And don’t you touch me again.” Stig snapped at Pepa, who gave him a stern glare right back and gave him the gesture that she had his eyes on him.
“I am not finished with you, mister.”
“Yeah, sure, whatever.” Stig rolled his eyes and walked away to go meet others while Roar and Kris took their own directions, walking into the crowd. Meanwhile, Pepa was offended by Stig’s apathetic remark and was about to stomp after him to give him a good scolding, but was held back by his sister and brother-in-law.
“Pepa, no! Don’t make this worse!” Julieta griped.
“Did you not hear what he just said to me?!” roared Pepa in defense.
Over to where the proclaimed ‘B-Bot’ was, named Ron as Barney so called it, it seemed to have a rousing discussion with the woman and the girl, though that would be putting it mildly if we’re being honest since the two women were unable to believe they were actually speaking with a robot.
“So what exactly are you?’ asked the mother.
“I am a Bubble generation one B-Bot. I am for making friends.” Ron explained in his usual geniality. “I am ‘Absalom?’s B-Bot. ‘Absalom?’ is my best friend and I am ‘Absalom?’s best friend out of th-”
“O-Okay, I get the idea, thanks.” The mother cut him off nervously.
“So how exactly do you make friends? That doesn’t seem, well, possible.” The little girl claimed.
“Incorrect. I am specifically designed to know everything about ‘Absalom?’ so that I may be his best friend. Would you like to friend ‘Absalom?’”
“Um…….n-” The mother was cut off when the B-Bot started putting sticky notes with thumbs-up emoji symbols on them on their legs without their permission.
“Friend request. Friend request.” He stated.
“What are you…..?”
“Ron! There you are! You can’t just go wandering off!” Barney came over and picked him up.
“Hi, ‘Absalom?’.” Ron greeted him. “I have found you some new friends.”
“This is your robot thing?” asked the little girl. “So you must be Absalom.”
“No! That is not my name!” blurted out Barney. “Well, yeah, that’s what he calls me, but my name is Barney.”
“Then why does he call you-”
“Eh, it doesn’t really matter. Look, I’m sorry for bothering you, but do you guys have any idea what’s going on here?” Barney asked them, putting his B-Bot on the ground.
But then Rudolf came running towards Ron to get a good look at him. Eyes shimmering with exhilaration, he picked the bot up and looked it all over.
“Oh my god, you are real! You’re an actual robot!” He belted his words out like a crazed fanboy while the others looked at him weirdly.
“Correct. Would you like to friend Barney?” asked Ron.
“That’s a really weird sentence, but it’s really cool that you said that. Hey, can you talk like Arnold Schwarzennaggar?” requested Rudolf, grinning.
“What is an ‘Arnold Sh-artzen-egger’?”
While the two women shared disturbed looks, Barney took Ron back from him. In fact, Barney had wrestled Ron out of Rudolf’s hands. Then Stig came marching over and dragged his dim friend away with him.
“I suppose you’re done now. Come on.” Stig grumbled, carrying him away by the shoulder.
“‘I’ll be back’.” Rudolf said to the B-Bot with a classic T-800 impression before they were both gone, leaving them still dazed.
“Who dresses like that?” The mother complained, referring to Stig’s dark gothic aesthetic.
Kris walked with Jack through the crowd, both of them remaining in each other’s presence rather closely as they looked around at all the various different characters and there were two different people looking like Santa Claus and this is when Jack stopped in his tracks, as did Kris when he saw the winter spirit do so and followed his gaze curiously. The one Santa Claus had a more traditional look about him, but with a more militaristic fashion and a perfectly-trimmed beard and mustache and he was with people that were most likely his family like his two sons - one older with gray hair and a goatee in the shape of a Christmas tree and red camouflage soldier outfit and one younger and skinny with a green Christmas sweater and reindeer slippers. Now the other one looked far different from the usual mainstream appearance with a longer beard and a red coat with a black fur trim instead of white. This one was one that Jack actually recognized right off the bat, just like the rabbit humanoid creature, the blue and green birdlike fairy lady and the small yellow man.
“Jack! Thank Manny, you’re okay!” North shouted with relief as he came over and pulled Jack into a hug while the others came running over.
“What the bloody hell just happened?” demanded Bunny.
“I don’t recognize this place.” Tooth fearfully looked around, unsettled by this new area they were brought into.
“Who are you guys?” asked Kris.
They finally noticed Kris’s presence when he said this and Jack took over the introductions.
“These are the Guardians, kid. That’s Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Sandman and Tooth Fairy.”
“So you-you’re telling me they’re real?” Kris couldn’t believe it.
“Oi, this bloke looks like a high-schooler. How can he even see us?” Bunnymund inquired skeptically. When Kris listened to the Easter Bunny speak, he quickly picked up on his Australian accent, which he found quite odd.
“It all has something to do with the guy who brought us here.” Kris explained.
“Whoever he is, must be powerful.” North theorized.
“Ooh! Can I see your teeth please? Pretty please?” Tooth took a sudden interest in having a look at Kris’s teeth out of pure natural habit as she zipped over to him without so much waiting for an answer. Kris was helpless against the hyperactive whims of the Tooth Fairy as she dug her fingers in his mouth, pulling open his mouth and getting a closer look inside.
“Hmm, precursor to a cavity in the molars, front tooth chipped a bit, overall nothing seems to be too bad, not without saying a little mouthwash or floss won’t help. Lost any baby teeth yet?” Tooth spoke, ignoring the boy’s exclaims of protest.
Kris saw that he was receiving strange looks from some of the people near them, like the two Asian families, all of them given the pair expressions as if they had clams coming out of their ears.
“Tooth, if you please.” North sighed, pulling the bird woman off of the boy and thankfully getting her hands out of his mouth.
“Don’t mind her. It’s a Tooth Fairy thing.” Jack told the boy.
“Uh, have you at least washed your hands first, Miss. uh,........bird lady?” asked Helen Lee, one of the green-wearing women from the Lee family, alongside her cousins Lily Lee.
“I-I don’t need to.” Tooth hesitantly asked, then whispered into Bunny’s ear. “Wow, even the adults can see us.”
“Where are your parents, young man?” asked Lily, looking around for anyone.
“My mom’s working right now. It’s just me and my friends.” Kris replied.
“I’m still at a loss as to why we’re even here to begin with. This isn’t like any situation I’ve ever been in.” stated Jack.
“Don’t worry yourself, handsome.” Lily reassured with a flirty gleam in her eyes directly towards Jack before sending him a wink, which made him blush madly, then start to feel a little uncomfortable.
“Oh, Lily. Honestly.” Helen breathed in exasperation.
“He’s so fluffy!” yelled the plump Korean girl in purple as she jumped onto the belly of the giant yeti creature Everest, hugging him tightly and rubbing her face in his fur madly. “HE’S SO FLUFFY!”
Everest shared a look with Yi, Peng and Jin, who pulled a disturbed face.
Yi just gave him a pained shrug.
“Abby, stop it!” Her friend, the red-haired Asian girl Meilin Lee, came over with Miriam and Priya to pry the plump girl off the yeti. “Sorry about her, she’s obsessed with fluffy things.”
“Yeah, you’ll have that.” Jin dryly spoke, earning an elbow bump from Yi.
“And Stig wanted to see Beetlejuice.” mumbled Kris.
Meanwhile, some of the Uglydolls joined by the Perfect Dolls, Mandy and the Spy Girls were exploring the crowd, with a combination of wonder and fearfulness, unable to believe that they were amongst humans. At least some of them were human, anyway.
“Wow, can you believe it?” Moxy, the pink female UglyDoll, said to her group.
“I got a feeling we’re not in the City of Imperfection anymore.” Babo replied, eyes wandering about.
“Gee, whatever gave you that idea.” Wage rolled her eyes at his cluelessness.
“How would everyone think of us, though? Just a couple of dolls walking around in a crowd of people. That’s bound to raise some questions.” Mandy, a bespectacled Perfect Doll to be exact, speculated, adjusting her glasses.
“Yeah, like, ‘What the ugly just happened and where are we?’. And maybe ‘Why is there a big blue furry noodle thing with a unicorn horn?’. That I’d like to know.” griped UglyDoll, turning his focus over to the blue dragoness.
“Ooh, pretty!” Tuesday, a blue-haired Spy Girl, chorused with buggy eyes before marching over to greet her, prompting her two friends to go chasing after her.
“Tuesday, get back here!” Kitty growled.
Sisu was just resting her feet while her friends were trying to come up with their next move when she then saw Tuesday dash up to her.
“Hello, big blue unicorn thing!” She waved at her.
“What are you?” Sisu asked her, inquisitiveness seizing her.
“I’m Tuesday. I’m a Perfect Doll and, like, I so love your fuzzy hair and your horn! OMD! Super spectacular!” gushed Tuesday like a fangirl.
“I know, impressive, huh?” Sisu bragged amusedly. “I’m actually a water dragon and you should see me slaying that water.”
“A dragon? You don’t look like a dragon.” Tuesday’s zeal ebbed away and turned to confusion.
“How would you know what a dragon looks like?”
“Hey! Back away!” Raya interrupted their conversation and she stomped her and aimed the tip of her sword at Tuesday threateningly.
“Raya, chill, girl. We were just talking.” Sisu tried to calm her down, but Raya wouldn’t let her guard down.
“Uh, yeah, we were.” Tuesday scaredly nodded, holding her hands up when Kitty and Lydia came rushing over.
“We’re sorry about her. She just wasn’t stuffed right.” Lydia apologized, dragging the blue-haired ditz away with Kitty’s help and Sisu sadly watched them go before turning to Raya with a stingy sneer.
“You promised you’d try to be more trusting.”
“Well, sorry, but habits die hard.” Raya defended herself.
Over with Stig, Roar and Rudolf, there were more people to check out and socialize with such as the blue-skinned fish family wearing human clothes who was in the middle of a discussion with another amphibious fishlike family that had more noticeable characteristics like tails and fin-like hair and they were wearing clothes made out of sea flora like seaweed perhaps. Curious, but still a bit cautious, the three made their way over. The two mothers appeared to be in the middle of an argument.
“I just had some stuff going on back at my home….” defended the lanky mother, Agatha Gillman.
“And you even dress up like them?! What kind of sea person wants to live amongst land monsters? Do you wanna put your children in danger that bad?” argued Daniela Paguro.
“Listen, I have my reasons! Ones that involve fighting for my family!”
Whilst the two adults went at it with their husbands trying to break them up, Agatha’s daughter came walking up to the trio with the two boys and a redheaded human girl following her.
“Hey, how are you doing?” Ruby Gillman greeted them with an over-friendly smile and wave, nervously grinning. “Sorry, it’s been pretty crazy lately.”
“Portal crazy?” asked Roar, getting the gist of it.
“Yeah, totally.” Ruby nodded, sighing with an exhausted facepalm. “God, this is putting a lot of pressure on my head right now. My mom and that lady are at each other’s throats and I still have no idea where we are.”
“Sorry, my mother can be a little much most of the time.” Luca Paguro stated apologetically with a wince towards Ruby.
“I’m so in the same boat as you.”
“So who are you guys, by the way.” Giulia Marcovaldo introduced herself. “My name is Giulia.”
“Hi, what’s up!” Rudolf greeted back enthusiastically. “Rudolf Stein is me.”
“Alberto Scorfano at your service.” said Alberto pridefully with exaggerated gentlemanly politeness and took Stig’s hand and jerked it back and forth as his formal handshake. “Piacere, Girolamo Trombetta?”
Stig yanked his hand away in vexation while he and the rest turned to him weirdly, unsure how to make of that Italian sentence. Ruby was stupefied, Luca was giving the new strangers a nervous flinch and Giulia was giving Alberto a sharpened deadpan.
“Not gonna pretend to understand any of that.” muttered Stig, grumbling under his breath.
“Is he from a theater troupe or something?” asked Rudolf.
“Sorry, it’s something he told me when we met.” Luca answered for his friend. “And I still don’t know what that means.”
“It sounds similar to ‘Nice meeting you, my name is Twisty Trombone.’” Giulia snarkily clarified for him.
“Uh, what?” Even Alberto was surprised by this.
“Oh my god.” Stig rolled his eyes, grabbing at his head as if he felt a headache coming on. “Of all the situations I had to be dragged in.”
“Kids! Get away from them!” Daniela ordered, coming forth in mother bear mode, pulling Luca, Alberto and Giulia away from the trio and using her tail to pull Ruby back as well. “We don’t talk to land monsters!”
“Uh, isn’t that what you call my kind?” Giulia asked her.
“Um, well, you see……” As Daniela tried to explain herself when she realized that Giulia was human as well, Roar stepped in to interject.
“Land monsters? Surely, you don’t mean…….us. The humans?”
“That depends. Do you boys plan on hunting us, spearing us, gutting us, turning us into fish food?” Daniela withheld a searing glare of suspicion in her red eyes as she slowly approached them, trying to look intimidating.
“I mean, have you tried sushi? My favorite is th-” Rudolf was cut off when Roar and Stig covered up his mouth with their hands to silence them so that he doesn’t get on the fish woman’s bad side.
“We don’t. Certainly not.” Roar quickly covered for him, inwardly flinching at Daniela’s gaze burning into his soul.
“So how are you three handling all of this?” Agatha came over.
“Like I wanna hang myself.” Stig numbly said.
Suddenly, he felt someone grab his long black hair and pull it outward. Annoyed, he looked to see a certain pink gremlin invading his personal space to examine his hair more closely, stroking it curiously like a baby was seeing hair for the first time in its life.
“Woah, neat hair, buddy.” Nimona bleated with childish engrossment, stroking his locks like she was petting a puppy. “So shady. So metal. I wish I had hair like that. What’s your secret?”
“Get the f*ck away from me!” He hissed at her, roughly shoving her away by smacking her in the face and getting her grabby hands off his hair. Besides his friends, the others were agape at his ill-tempered response.
“Hey! I was paying you a compliment! Those are hard to come by, you know! Especially if you’re me!” whined Nimona, offended by his attitude.
“Why don’t you two act more mature?” berated Agatha with hands to her hips.
“I’m not a child, lady! I’m much older than you are!” Nimona retorted.
“Really?” Daniela raised an unconvinced eyebrow.
“YES!”
“Okay, I wanna wake up now.” Stig moaned to himself under his breath, rubbing his temples, trying to imagine himself anywhere but here.
Blood-curdling screams pierced the air, jolting everyone out of their wits and the source of the screams came from some girls like a preteen girl named Savannah Meades, Isabella Madrigal, Luisa Madrigal, Honey Lemon and Wasabi-No-Ginger shrieked like a high-pitched girl when he saw a blue-skinned undead woman in a bride gown, which caused some people to back away and pull their children away like when Mrs. Zhong yanks her son Chin back when gazing at her. However, there were some people who weren’t too afraid of her like a black teen with green twin buns Kat Elliot, Nimona and even Stig, the latter of whom was far more unfazed than the former two.
“Oh goodness me.” Emily mused in shock at everyone’s reactions to her.
“No, it’s alright, everyone. She won’t hurt any of you.” Victor Van Dort stepped up to her defense.
“It’s true! She’s harmless!” agreed Victoria Everglot.
“That woman is a zombie!!! What if she tries to eat me and my Mei-Mei??!!!!?!!” Ming Lee screamed bloody-murder, pulling her daughter by her side.
“Please, madam! Mind your manners!” Victoria chastised her.
“Hello, everyone!”
Everyone silenced when the voice of the one and only Kade, the owner of the Sanctum Infinitum, infiltrated the panicked and tense air of the room and silenced everyone down once he belted out his jovial greeting the moment he suavely reappeared before them all with a de-Hulked Jen in her lawyer uniform. And he managed to get everyone who was either arguing, shooting the breeze or even about to get into a fight to halt and laid their undivided attention onto him and him alone.
Now was the time to get down to business.
