Beyond the Skies

by FrostTheWolf

Scroll 26- Castle Crashing

The light of the moon was the only thing that illuminated the darkened sky, as night had fallen over the Skylands. Many of the inhabitants of the Skylands would be in their own homes, tucked into their warm comfortable beds and dreaming sweet dreams tonight. Yet, for one particular dragon in the Skylands tonight, they did not have the luxury of sleep and rest. They had a mission that needed to be done tonight, and it was up to him to see it through, sticking to the shadows as they came upon the stronghold that belonged to none other than Lord Kaos.

To Blackout though, what he was doing now was the result of a change in plans. Originally, he was with four other Skylanders, sent out on a mission by Master Eon in order to find the whereabouts of two of their comrades that have gone missing. When his team arrived at an old building and began to look for clues, they found something that was much different from what they were originally looking for. They didn’t find the exact whereabouts of Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow, but instead found a map to a place where they could find the information that they sought after as well as a way inside.

With this information in hand, their team’s leader, Master Ambush, made a change in plans. To find what they were looking for, one of them had to infiltrate Kaos’ own fortress in the dead of night. Out of the other members of the team, he believed that Blackout was the most suited for the task at hand. Yet, this also meant that he had to do this alone. No back up. No forms of communication. Nothing. He had to get in, find what he was looking for… wherever that may be, and get out.

“Talk about putting the weight of the Skylands on my shoulders,” he grumbled to himself, hiding in the shadows while looking for a potential entry point for him to infiltrate the castle, being aware of any enemy patrols that were around the area and watching their movements. If the instructions that Trap Shadow left behind were still applied here, then there was supposed to be an opening up above with one of the windows.

Though, that was not what Blackout planned to do, especially since several of the windows that were up at the top of the castle looked to be boarded up. “Guess I’m going in from below,” he thought to himself, rounding around the backside of the castle. At one point, he found an entrance to one of the lower levels of the castle, but had to hide in the shadows as two guards walked out through the door and made their way up the stairs before proceeding to go along the castle grounds.

Once the guards had left and the door was closing, Blackout made his move, slipping through the entryway before the door could fully close all the way and sticking to the shadows. He was inside, yet the only question now was where was he? Sure, he had seen the map that Trap Shadow left for them, but that was only briefly. He had to find out where he was first before getting any ideas on what to do.

Fortunately, along the wall, there looked to be a plate on the wall that served as a floor directory, with a few of them already being listed. Taking a quick moment, he scanned what was on the wall, before looking at the bottom of the list.

B1F- Interrogation/Time Out Rooms

“How… is that supposed to be intimidating?” he asked himself, only to slowly turn around and see a pair of chains dangling along the wall as they reflected the light of the moon outside. “Okay, never mind.”

Looking back to the directory, Blackout began to look at the list, trying to see which rooms were the most likely places to have the information that he was looking for, while also being surprised by just how many rooms that this giant stronghold actually contained. There was a game room, a pool and day spa, a dining hall and kitchen, a docking bay for aerial transports, a library as well as Kaos’ sleeping quarters, just to name a few.

Yet, out of all of those locations, there was one possible place that stood out to Blackout the most. That location was Kaos’ personal study. If there was a possibility that Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow were captured in any way by the Dark Portal Master, then there must have been something about it there.

Of course, getting up to the floor that had his study was another story. It was up on the third floor of the castle, and more than likely, each floor was being patrolled by some of Kaos’ minions or whoever else was up this late at night. He didn’t want to assume that the Dark Portal Master was sound asleep in his room, because it was highly possible that the Dark Skylander could find him hard at work crafting his next scheme. So, he had to be careful.

The first floor of the castle, according to the directory, contained the most amount of rooms. This included the main hall, the dining wing, the game room and also the pool and day spa. The docking bay was outside around the back side of the castle, while most of the facilities on this floor were indoors. The guards in the room were stationed around the stairs, while some of them walked around the entire floor in a sweep for intruders while Blackout himself tried to stay out of sight.

It didn’t help that, just as he was about to try and make his way for the stairwell that went to the second floor, that a door opened directly in front of him, with two of Kaos’ minions holding what looked to be snacks and cups of fruit punch as the door behind them did not close all the way. Once they were gone, as he slowly passed the door, he heard a series of loud noises in the background along with the sounds of cheering that were inside.

“Just what in Skylands are they seeing?” Blackout thought to himself, seeing the ‘Game Room’ plaque on the door as he took a look inside. Several of Kaos minions were all sitting in front of a giant projection screen that was spread out along the wall as the Skylander took a peak. In doing so, he happened to find something that could serve as an opportunity. There looked to have been a second set of doors on the other end of the room. Since all the occupants were too focused on the screen, he could just slip behind where they were sitting, provided that he didn’t make any noise, since the room was littered with trash.

Quietly, he slipped into the room and slowly creeped behind the couch, hearing the grumbles of the room’s occupants as he heard the sound of commercials that you would typically hear on Troll Radio. Yet, that did not last long. Before he knew it, all the minions in the room were cheering and excited to see their program return as a few pieces of popcorn fell on top of him, including one that got stuck on the tip of the horn that was on his head. “Oh, come on! Seriously?!”

As he tried to take a moment to remove the popcorn from his horn, a new voice was heard on screen. From his position, Blackout could not see who was talking, but what he heard alone was enough to catch him off guard. ‘Hello, everybody, and welcome back to our SkyStream here at the MaguDome!! I’m your host, Magus, and for all of those who are just tuning in, you have come just in time for tonight’s main event!’

The Dark Skylander could not see anything from his current position as he sneaked behind them, but when he did get a glimpse, he saw what looked to be an arena fight between a drow elf that was wearing a cloak over most of its body and a group of four bipedal beasts with dark fur and spots that carried numerous weapons. ‘This is it, folks! The fans here are on the edge of their seats!! Can our champion, Blade Gunner, stand a chance against the feared Hyena Pack!?! It’s time we find out… FIGHT!!!’

“Yeah, I better get going,” Blackout thought, making his way to the door at the other end of the room as he could hear the sounds of weapons clashing in the background. Yet, as he was going to the door, that was when he happened to hear the announcer say something else.

‘Make sure you stay tuned after our main event, folks! For we have a special treat for our viewers at home! A battle to the death involving two unfortunate souls who found themselves on the wrong end of Master Kaos!’ Immediately, Blackout turned around towards where the projection was being shown, only to find himself staring at the last two people that he wanted to find. On screen were the two comrades that he was trying to find, locked up in a cage that was hanging over the pit that was the arena. ‘Give it up for the two SkyLosers-’

“Stealth Elf?! Trap Shadow-!?”

Immediately, the faces of ten to twelve different minions stared directly at him the moment that the dark dragon realized his blunder, dropping their snacks to grab their weapons as Blackout immediately bolted for the door, propping a coat stand underneath to jam the door before racing to the nearest stairwell. “Good going, Blackout. Now, you put the whole place on high alert,” he told himself as he tried to stay out of sight before going anywhere else. The guards that were once sweeping the grounds were now regrouping and spreading out farther as Blackout tried to find the stairs to make it up to the next floor.

But just as he was about to climb up, he heard a new voice echo from the first floor. “What is going on?! Who in their right mind has the audacity to cause so much commotion this late at night while my son is sleeping?!”

As Blackout turned his head around a corner, he looked to see a tall woman with a pitch black gown and a headdress that resembled horns look around the room, while also seeing Kaos’ Butler, Glumshanks. “You there!! Tell me what is going on!”

“H-Hang on, M-Ma’am. L-Let me,” Glumshanks said, before looking back at the minions and listening to what they were saying, “They said that one moment, they were watching the SkyStream in the game room… the next thing they knew, they turned to see a black dragon was inside with them. They went to get their weapons, but it ran before they could chase after him.”

“Well, that’s just brilliant! This is the third intruder this week! I’m not going to just stand here and let invaders come and go as they please,” the woman snarled, before clapping her hands twice and looking to the ceiling, “Mesmeralda!!”

Out of nowhere, a giant spider creature that wore a red dress and top hat dropped down from the ceiling, an entrance that startled Blackout as she gracefully landed just above the floor. “Why, hello there once again, Kaossandra. To what do I owe the pleasure of seeing you again after so long?”

“It has been a long time, but I’m afraid that we have a problem that we need your assistance with,” the woman, Kaossandra, responded back, “We have an intruder running around the stronghold. This is the third one this week, and unfortunately, we cannot have Sombra capture this one, since he only listens to my son, and he’s sound asleep.”

“So, you want for me to find them and bring them to you?” Mesmeralda chuckled, “This sounds rather exciting... And just what does the fly that you want for me to entangle in my web look like?”

Kaossandra herself turned back to Glumshanks, who looked back to the minion he was speaking to as they began to chatter again, “A b-black dragon with w-white eyes and a horn on their head that… l-looks like a blade.”

“Very well,” Mesmeralda nodded, before turning to Kaossandra, “Out of curiosity, what is it that you want to do with them? Surely, you’re not just going to give them to that brute with the SkyStream now, are you?”

“Oh, hardly,” Kaossandra responded in disgust, “When we find that rat, I have my own questions for them that I would like to ask. In the meantime, I have more important research to attend to.”

“W-What kind of research, Ma’am?” Glumshanks now asked.

The woman then looked towards Glumshanks as she let out a sigh. “I’m looking into this ‘Skyshifter’ as well as something that a… draconequus, I believe it was called? Something he stated in one of my son’s recordings has me intrigued. Therefore, I’m taking it upon myself to investigate further.”

After hearing that, Blackout felt tempted to follow her and find out more about what she was trying to solve, but he had more pressing matters to attend to as he carefully ascended up the stairs, going into the first room that he saw and closing the door behind him upon reaching the third floor. At first, he wasn’t sure where exactly he ended up, but the sight of a portal of power at the opposite end of the room immediately told him where exactly he was.

The only two facilities that were on the third floor of the castle were both the quarters where Kaos slept and also the Dark Portal Master’s personal study. Since he did not see any beds or a Dark Portal Master in pajamas at all, Blackout could only assume that he was in the study, especially given the amount of books and scrolls that were scattered all around the room.

“Geez. I know you’re a villain and everything, but would it kill you to keep this place clean?” he thought to himself, before walking over to the table in the center of the study as he began to think about his current situation, “Okay, think. If I go back down there, I’m going to get spotted, but I’m just a sitting duck if I stay here. How am I supposed to get out?”

At first, when seeing that there was a door on the other side of the room, Blackout thought that it would lead to something outside, like a balcony. Unfortunately for him, when he opened the door, he had the displeasure of coming face to face with the same spider lady that he was trying to avoid. “Why, hello there, dearie-”

SLAM!!

“Nope! Not dealing with you!!” the dark dragon immediately stated after slamming the door in the spider woman’s face, before backing away from the door and throwing a bookcase in front of it for good measure. He didn’t have time to try to think of a plan at this rate, especially with the likely possibility that there will be troops swarming the door he came through any second.

There was only one way out of this situation, yet he was going to feel rather sore afterwards, “Alright, out the window it is then.”

Turning towards the window, he backed up as far as he could, before charging towards the window. Curling up into his Shadow Blade attack as he somersaulted through the window, he shattered the glass as he fell down to the ground. 

Once the Dark Skylander landed, Blackout had to immediately take refuge in the shadows as he looked to see that Mesmeralda had finally gotten into the room and found the mess that he left behind. No doubt, she was downright furious for the stunt that he just pulled, as she turned around to look at someone that was behind her, presumably more of the minions that served as castle guards, “Tell the rest of your miserable lot to spread out and start searching the castle grounds! Now!! That punk’s going to pay dearly for this!!”

“That’s my cue to leave,” Blackout thought to himself before taking off, blending in with the shadows around him as he ran, “Gotta get to everyone else before I have an army on my tail.”

Unfortunately for him though, luck was not exactly in his favor tonight.

“Something’s not right.”

The comment from Jet Vac was enough to capture Ambush’s attention as he looked back to the Sky Baron. As they were waiting for Blackout’s return, both him and Aurora found an old Skystones table and playing pieces that was put away inside of a closet and decided that the best way that they could wait for their comrade was to play a game. While both Masters were playing, Prism Break just spectated while Jet Vac remained on lookout by a window perch.

“What’s bothering you, Jet Vac?” Ambush asked.

“It’s Blackout,” Jet Vac replied back to the tree-knight, turning his head to look down at the Life Sensei, “Something doesn’t feel right. If he followed the instructions that Trap Shadow left behind, then he would’ve been done sooner. Now, it’s been a couple hours with no sign of him.”

“Do you need to take a break?” Prism asked, one of his crystals glowing and serving as a light so that the two senseis could see the skystones board as Aurora made a move, “You’ve been perched up there since we got here.”

“Someone has to remain on lookout. We don’t know what would happen if we looked away for even just a moment,” the Air Skylander retorted, shortly before looking back outside again.

“Why don’t you come down here and join us? I’m having fun beating Ambush here at Skystone-” she replied, just as he placed down a stone that took one of hers off the board, “Hey! No fair!!”

“It’s a foolish decision to assume victory too early,” Ambush chuckled, looking back at the Light Sensei as she grumbled to herself and played another stone, only to have one of his stones counter it as the stones on Aurora’s end popped off the board, “I win. How many rounds does that put me at?”

“Both of you have three each,” Prism Break replied to Ambush as Jet Vac tried to silence their conversation. While they were talking, he noticed that something was moving in the shadows that weren’t far from the building. At first, he thought it was just the wind or an animal moving in the bushes. Though, he soon began to notice that what he was seeing was too big to be an ordinary animal as it got closer and closer to their location.

Immediately, he began to realize that the creature that was lurking in the shadows was actually their comrade as he were trying to catch their breath. “Blackout? Blackout, are you there?”

Immediately, the dragon responded, looking directly at him. “J-jet Vac?! Jet Vac, we need to go! Now!!”

“Go? Why would we-?” It only took the sky baron a few moments to notice, but not that far behind the dark dragon, there was a squadron of Kaos’ minions carrying torches and weapons as he looked back at the Dark Skylander, “What did you DO!!?!”

“I’ll explain later, but right now, we gotta get out of here!!” Blackout told him.

“What’s going on out there, Jet Vac?” Aurora then asked, getting up from her seat as the Sky Baron used his jet pack to descend to the ground.

“Well, the good news is that Blackout’s back,” the Air Skylander told his teammates, “Bad news though... is that he brought some company with him.”

“What kind of company?” the crystal golem then asked.

“The kind that chase you with weapons and torches,” Jet Vac summarized, before going to the back door of the building and getting it open, “Blackout, quickly!!” 

The dragon wasted no time as he leaped inside before Jet Vac shut the door behind him. For added measure, Ambush slid the Skystones table in front of the door to block it as they heard the loud and angry war chants from outside. 

“Woah, dear elements, are you alright?” Aurora asked, seeing the exhausted dragon as he was trying to catch his breath.

“D-Do… I look alright?” the dark dragon panted as he looked to his team.

Ambush waited for a few moments to let Blackout rest briefly, before asking the first question that came to his mind. “Blackout, what happened?”

“Well, I was able to get inside, but since the windows were boarded up, I couldn’t go up the same way that Trap Shadow got inside,” the dragon began to recall as he looked at the sensei, before getting the papers that made up the map of Kaos’ fortress and laying them on the floor, “So, I had to go in from the basement. I made my way up to the first floor and stuck to the shadows… then, I made a mistake.”

“Uh oh,” Aurora said to herself.

“You see, my original plan was to go upstairs towards where Kaos’ personal study was and see if he left anything behind that could tell me where they went. Though, since there were guards at the base of the stairs, I tried taking a shortcut through the game room that they had on the first floor,” Blackout carefully explained, going as far as to trace his claw along the map layout that they had to show his route, “At the time, they were too focused on watching some fight broadcast at that MaguDome place, something that a guy named Magus was hosting. At the time, I was trying to sneak over to the door on the other side, but then I heard the announcer talking about ‘two unfortunate souls who found themselves on the wrong end of Master Kaos’.”

“I don’t like where this is going...” Prism Break grumbled.

“Next thing I see is both Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow locked up in a cage hanging over the arena. I was shocked to the point that every minion in that room soon noticed me, before alerting everyone else to the point that it attracted some woman with a pointed headdress and a spider lady-”

“Hold up,” Jet Vac interjected, “Some… woman? Could you be more specific?”

“How much more specific can I get?” Blackout then asked his comrade, “They found out that I was in the building, and the woman wanted that spider lady or whatever she is to capture me and bring me to her, even though she was wanting to get back to her research.”

“What about names?” Prism Break asked.

“Well, the woman was called Kaossandra and the spider lady that she was talking to was known as… Mesmeralda, I think?”

That had Jet Vac’s eyes widen a bit as he stepped back. “Y-You’re not serious, are you?”

“You know who I’m talking about?” Blackout asked.

“She was a villain that a few Skylanders, myself included, encountered when we were trying to stop Kaos’ plan at Mount Cloudbreak a few years back,” the sky baron explained, “When we fought, she treated the battle like it was a stage performance and referred to herself as the star of the show. Yet, we never really knew where she went after her defeat.”

“Well, it might not have been the best idea to slam a door directly in her face then.”

“You did what!?!”

“I believe we are getting a little off topic here,” Ambush decided to interject, before turning back to Blackout to ask a new question, “You said this woman wanted to get back to her research… Did she happen to say anything about what that would entail?”

“Well, yeah. That Mesmeralda lady did ask her, but the only things she said was something about a Sky… shifter or something like that as well as figuring out something that was on a recording from a dragon...eq-something,” Blackout let out another deep sigh, “T-That’s all I can honestly remember.”

Just hearing that alone was enough for Jet Vac to look towards Ambush and Aurora, before looking back to Blackout, “I swear I heard that title somewhere before, but now is not the time for that. We got what we came here for, so we should send a signal so that Flynn can get us out of here.”

“It would be best for us to leave while we still have the chance,” Ambush added, “We don’t know the numbers pitted against us if we were to fight them off, especially since we are in their territory.”

“Okay, b-but where are we going to wait?” Blackout coughed, “Flynn w-won’t know where we are if we stayed inside here.”

“There is always the roof,” Aurora suggested, “But we should get a hold of him first.”

“How are we going to do that though?” Prism Break asked, which just lead to all four of the other Skylanders in the room staring at him, “Uh... why are you guys looking at me?”

On the deck of the S.S. Boom, Cali was on lookout as she watched the vast expanse of the Skylands pass by. Both her and Flynn were tasked with helping a team of Skylanders with their mission and right now. She was waiting for some form of signal that would notify her that the team needed an extraction. Of course, it did not exactly help any that the pilot of the ship was asleep at the helm of the ship now. Especially when, every so often, Flynn would talk about enchiladas in his sleep.

Of course, she would honestly be a lot more worried were it not for the fact that, somehow, Flynn was actually better flying asleep than whenever he’s flying awake, which, in itself, was scary to even think about. 

“T-thank… F-fank you...! I a-am... h-honored… a-awarded… ‘Sky Pilot… Year’ a-award for… n-ninth… row. It is-s just... to w-werk... f-fine people,” he said, looking like he was pulling a list out of his pocket, even though there wasn’t any, “I h-eve a f-few … f-fank … and little time… through... f-fest... cann.”

“Oh, great. I would settle for anything else other than this incoherent acceptance speech right now,” Cali internally groaned, being forced to listen to Flynn name off each person that he wanted to thank individually. Fortunately though, she did not have to sit through it for much longer, because as she turned her head to try and pay attention to anything other than the sleep talking pilot, two golden yellow beams of light shot up in the sky.

Immediately, she realized what that meant as she turned towards the helm of the ship and raced over to where the pilot was standing. “Flynn, we gotta go! Now!!” 

“H-hang o-on. I-I have a-a f-few m-more-”

SMACK!!

“Flynn, wake up!!” Cali told him, whacking him over the side of the head as the wheel of the ship began to spin. She tried to take control of the helm, but the Mabu had already turned the ship so quickly that it was on a crash course towards a giant floating island that was now in their path. “FLYNN!!”

“W-what? I was dreaming about-” the pilot barely had any time to fully wake up properly, because the first thing that he saw upon being slapped out of his slumber was his ship barreling straight towards an island, “Holy ENCHILADA SAUCE!! Hang onto something!!”

Cali never had time to grab onto anything as the ship made an immediate hard left turn, barely missing the island by a few inches as Flynn was trying to get them back on course. “C-Cali, what’s-”

“Look, less talking, more piloting, Flynn,” she told him, before pointing to where the two beams were, “The team of Skylanders we dropped off are sending their signal. We need to pick them up, but be careful-”

“Cali, DUCK!!”

Immediately, Cali hit the deck as a giant boulder flew over the deck of the ship, prompting her to glare back at Flynn as he was trying to maneuver the ship, as he kept his head low, “What did I say about being careful!?!”

“I’m sorry! I don’t work well under pressure!!” the pilot replied, narrowly missing another set of clouds as he was going straight towards where the lights were. But as they got closer, the two of them could make out a few other things that were rather noticeable. For one thing, the light was coming from the rooftop of what looked to be an abandoned building that was nearby a giant castle. Another thing was the fact that the Skylanders that they were trying to pick up were stuck on top of the building, while an army of what looked to be Kaos’ Minions carrying torches and weapons were trying to get them down.

“Flynn, how close can you get to them!?” Cali asked, thinking of a plan for how to get them on board as she made her way to the hatch that would allow for her to go below deck.

“I-I don’t know... a f-few more feet? Why-?”

“Just get as close as you can to the building. I got a plan to get them on board,” she told him, before jumping down below deck and darting over to the door that would be used to bring supplies into the cargo bay. Normally, for bringing passengers on board, Flynn would either have to use a ramp or a rope ladder to bring them in, but considering their current predicament, the only thing that she could think of was to open up the cargo bay door as the ship approached the building.

“Everyone on board, now!!”

Wasting no time, all five Skylanders hurried to get on board as Cali went back to the controls and hit the button to close the cargo bay door. At first, it was beginning to rise up, but as Flynn was trying to move his ship, something snagged onto the door and prevented it from closing. “Flynn, talk to me here! The cargo bay door’s not working!!”

“Aww, leaving so soon?” a sinister, yet melancholic voice called out to them, “I was about to prepare for my grand performance…” When Cali looked outside to see what was holding the ship, she could see threads that were being held by a spider lady with a dark red dress and a small top hat, “Why would my audience want to leave so soon? I am the star after all.”

“Sorry, but we’re going to have to pass on that!” Aurora proclaimed, jumping up onto the cargo bay door and slicing at the strings with her blades, cutting through the threads and freeing the ship as the cargo bay door was able to properly close.

“Flynn, we only got this chance! GO!!”

Upon hearing Cali’s statement, Flynn wasted no time turning the ship back around and trying to get away from there as fast as possible before Mesmeralda could try to grab hold of the ship again. But Mesmeralda herself had a different plan. With a flick of her wrist and a turn of her fingers, the sliced pieces of string that were cut by Aurora transformed into her puppets. “My friends, be a dear and drag them back over here. I must have an audience!”

“Agh! Evil Puppets on deck! Evil puppets on deck!! Help!” Flynn yelled, trying to keep them away from the wheel of the ship, barely missing another island as Ambush quickly came on deck. The puppets themselves were made of wood and painted white along with wearing a purple and black striped shirt over their wooden frames and a small matching hat. They had wooden arms on their sides and floated above the ground, since they did not have legs, and their eyes glowed red.

“Allow me,” the sensei replied, just as the puppets noticed his presence and began to charge at the Life Skylander. Gripping his blade, he readied his weapon and waited for the right opportunity to strike. Two of them began to close in, one from his right and the other that was directly in front of him. As they did, Ambush swung his sword, spinning in the air as it struck both of the puppets before turning his attention to his other opponents. They were trying to attack him while his back was turned...

...Something he saw as a mistake for him to exploit. Placing his hands on the ground and raising them up, the sensei channeled his power as he summoned an upheaval of bamboo trees around him, knocking the puppets into the air upon contact, just before Ambush pushed his hands to the side and sent pieces of bamboo shattering and flying as projectiles towards them.

“It is foolish to think that you can so easily overrun a master,” Ambush spoke, before arming himself with his blade as the puppets got back up, “Another round, huh? Try if you like.”

For the next attempt, the puppets split themselves up into two groups, both of them charging at the master from two different positions as Ambush readied himself. Even though their attempt to take him by surprise was impressive, it was still flawed. Holding his sword, the Life Sensei spun around in the air, his blade striking both groups within mere moments of each other as they landed on the ground.

“As fun as this might be, I’m pulling the curtain on this show,” the sensei declared, putting his hands together as he looked at the puppets, “By the power of Sky Chi!”

In a matter of seconds, Ambush had his targets. Forseeing the victory that was to come, he dashed forth, swiftly slicing through and eliminating each one of the puppets, his foes transforming into nothing more than threads as they were blown off deck by the evening winds. “Respect Nature!”

“W-whoa... that was too close,” Flynn said, looking back to the sensei, “Thanks for clearing the deck. I can get us back safely, knowing that we don’t have any freaky puppets trying to hijack my ship.”

Ambush himself nodded, turning around to find Cali coming back up on deck, “How are the others-?”

Before Cali had the chance to say anything, both of them heard the sound of cannon fire in the distance, turning to see several vessels pursuing them and aiming cannons directly at their ship. “Flynn, we’re getting shot at! I hope you have something on board that could help us fight back,” Cali told him, just as another cannon shot almost clipped the side of their vessel.

“Yeah, uh…” Flynn told her, before making a sharp right turn to avoid hitting another floating island that was nearby, “We might have a slight problem with that.”

“What ‘problem’?” she now asked, narrowing her gaze.

“W-well,” the pilot stuttered, just before hearing the sound of another cannon going off, “There really isn’t anything we can use to fight back with on here.”

“You don’t have any weapons on here!?!”

“This is a cargo ship! Not a combat vessel. I don’t want anymore holes in my ship-” he countered, just as another shot was fired, this one breaking the front nose of the ship as the pilot tried to keep the ship steady, “Oh, come on! How can this get any worse?”

“Aww, what’s the matter? Leaving so soon?” they heard the same melancholic voice from before as Ambush turned to see Mesmeralda on one of the vessels that was chasing them, “Guess it seems like we’re taking this show on the road! I hope all of you are prepared for the second act.”

“...great. Now, she’s taunting us. Honestly preferred the cannonballs-” As Flynn said that, another cannonball was fired, this time smashing through the railing that was directly behind him, “I was joking!”

“We can’t just stand here and let them shoot us down,” Ambush commented, looking to Cali for a moment before an idea came to his head, “Prism Break, come up here! We need your help on deck.”

“Hang on! Hang on! I’m coming up,” they heard the crystal golem shout, just before finding his way back up onto the deck of the ship as he now began to see that pieces of the ship were now missing, and the sound of cannons were being fired, “What in the world is going on up here?”

Ambush paused for a moment to try and come up with an explanation for Prism. As he was about to speak though, another cannon ball flew by over the deck, this time hitting one of the islands that Flynn was doing his best to avoid, which in turn prompted the sensei to instead keep things simple because of their current situation. “Being hunted. Ship has no weapons. Need your lasers.”

Prism, looking around for a moment at all the cannon fire barely missing the ship, just slumped his shoulders and sighed before looking back to Ambush. “Fine,” Rolling his shoulders, he began to walk towards the stern of the ship to look to see how many enemy ships he was dealing with, before summoning some crystals where he was standing as he rolled his eyes. “Of course.”

“Flynn, you might want to shield your eyes.”

“My eyes? Why would I-” Before he could finish, Flynn turned around to see what was behind him, just as Prism Break started firing his lasers at the enemy ships being him, a misaimed one flashing in his direction as the ship shook from another blast. “AH! MY EYES!!”

“Dang it, Flynn! What did I just tell you!?” Cali snapped, before she turned around to see that the ship was heading towards another giant floating island, “Flynn!! We’re going to crash unless you do something-!!”

Instead of making a hard turn to the left or right, the blinded pilot instead went with a crazier plan and had the ship take a downward nose dive, forcing Ambush and Cali to grab hold of the railings along the side of the vessel while Flynn went straight down, the pilot’s back being the only thing keeping Prism Break from falling off as the crystal golem continued to fire off more blasts at the ships that pursued them, several of the lasers hitting their targets and causing some of the ships to blow up, while the other vessels that were chasing them performed evasive maneuvers in order to avoid getting hit.

“What in my uncle’s name is going on up there!?!” Ambush and Cali heard Aurora shout from below deck. 

“Prism’s fending off ships that are coming after us, and Flynn’s literally flying blii-,” the mabu tried to summarize for the Light Sensei, before realizing just how far they were going down and how fast they were descending, “-Ahhh! Pull up, Flynn! Pull up!!”

Immediately, the pilot did what she said and had their vessel immediately pull up, throwing Prism off guard as the maneuver affected his aim and causing his beams to miss their intended targets. “HEY!!”

“S-sorry!!” Cali shouted back, not letting go of the grip she had on the railing as Flynn was having the ship come back up to proper altitude.

“Hmph, what a pesky little bunch,” they heard Mesmeralda’s voice echo again, before seeing her move her arms, “Chorus, prepare yourselves!! If they aren’t coming to my stage, then we will come to them instead!!”

Mere moments after hearing that, a cannonball from a ship that was flanking their left side crashed through the cargo hold. As Ambush turned and saw the vessel, the minions on board began throwing giant sized orbs at the ship as several landed on deck, and a few more were thrown into the hole that was now in the cargo ship. From a distance, it looked as if they were either cannon balls or bombs that were heading towards them, but as they were about to touch the deck, the spheres began to unravel like a ball of string and released the puppets that were kept inside. They were mostly similar to the ones that Ambush had already faced, but several of the puppets this time were armed with magenta colored scimitars and kamas.

“Cali, stay with Flynn. I’ll handle this,” the tree-knight told her, readying his weapon as the mabu quickly raced over to where the pilot was standing. Taking up a stance, the sensei stared down his opponents and firmly gripped the blade in his hands, “I may not have roses, but let me give you some plants for your performance.”

The puppets made the first move as the ones without weapons tried to throw themselves at the sensei. Yet, Ambush himself had a different approach for this one. Instead of swinging his blade to counter their attacks, the sensei charged forth, bamboo emerging from the ground beneath his feet as he knocked the puppets into the air with his Splintering Punch technique before flying straight at them, using the opportunity to catch his foes by surprise and strike them before they hit the ground.

As Ambush landed back on the ground, he turned his head to the right to see that two of the puppets that were armed with scimitars came at him next. Preparing his blade, the Life Sensei took up a defensive posture as he began to block and parry attacks from both of the puppets. Trying to disarm them would be a challenge, considering that when Ambush blocked the attacks of one puppet, the second one followed up shortly afterwards. So instead, he focused on defending himself from their attacks and waited for the right moment to strike.

One thing that he didn’t notice though was that while he was clashing with these particular puppets, the ones who wielded kamas were nowhere to be seen. He knew that they weren’t part of the group that charged in to start this encounter, and they weren’t with these ones, so where were they?

“Master Ambush, behind you!!”

The callout from Cali led to Ambush turning his head briefly and seeing the kama puppets attempting to get the jump on him. Acting quickly, the Sensei pushed off the scimitar puppets before placing both hands on the ground, creating an Arboreal Upheaval at his spot that knocked both groups into the air. This time, though, several pieces of bamboo floated around the Sensei in a circle, forming what he would call ‘the ring of pain’.

This particular technique was one that Ambush would use whenever he found himself in a situation where he was outnumbered. In this case, as the kama puppets tried to attack him from behind again, their attempts were intercepted by the bamboo that spun around him before getting knocked back down to the ground, allowing for the Sensei to focus on the opponents in front of him and not have to worry about getting blindsided.

“The best offense is a good defense,” he said, looking to his opponents as the unarmed puppets were now regrouping, “A shame that you don’t seem to understand that.”

The puppets tried to prepare for another attack, but as they got up, the ship began to roll upside down. The unexpected maneuver forced Ambush to slam his sword in the ground to support himself as several of the puppets that didn’t have weapons started to either hold onto their companions or fell off their ship. As this was happening, Cali was trying to hold onto something so she didn’t fall off while Flynn maintained his grip on the wheel. As for Prism Break, the golem was caught off guard by the sudden roll of the ship, which caused his lasers to slice around and cut through a lot of the ships that were chasing them, something that the surprised Earth Skylander didn’t notice because he was trying his best to save himself and not fall off the ship.

“Flynn, that’s not what I meant when I said evasive maneuvers!!” Cali snapped the moment that the ship was not rolling around anymore.

When the ship was finally straightened out, Ambush yanked his sword out of the floor of the deck as the puppets he was facing did the same. Despite the small setback just now, Ambush was still focused on the foes that were in front of him. He was beginning to think of a way to finish this fight, because the sooner that he did, the better.

Carefully, he observed the opponents that remained, watching as they made a formation around the tree knight and circled around him like vultures. The unarmed puppets were on his left hand side and the scimitar puppets were on the right, leading to him thinking that the kama puppets were behind him again. They must’ve had a plan for all of them to attack him at once, considering that their previous two attempts to successfully harm the Sensei did not work out in their favor.

“So, this is what you have chosen to do...” he said, before letting out a sigh and readying himself, “Very well. Then, I believe that it’s time for me to teach you a harsh lesson.”

In an instant, all the puppets charged at him as the Sensei prepared himself. Ambush began drawing upon his strength, waiting for the right moment to attack his foes. Placing his right hand on the deck, the Sensei jumped up into the air as the ground beneath him erupted with a giant upheaval of mystical bamboo. The attack caught all his opponents together and defeated them in one fell swoop, their bodies turning into broken threads that blew away with the wind.

“The lesson is… never mess with nature,” the Sensei said. Yet, despite his victory, something did not feel right. Over the course of his battle, none of the other Skylanders that were below deck came up to join the fight. If anything, it was all likely possible that they were having to face the same foes that he encountered just now.

Wasting no time, Ambush made his way back down into the cargo hold of the ship. Luckily, there were no foes left in the room. Yet, all the unexpected twists and turns by Flynn over the course of the flight have left both the room and the Skylanders worse for wear. “Is everyone alright?”

“...W-we’ve been better,” Blackout groaned as he tried to get up off the floor.

“We d-defeated the puppets that broke in, b-but the ship’s still in disrepair,” Jet Vac was the next one to speak, scratching the back of his head as a couple of feathers fell off his arms.

“R-Remind me how h-he’s still allowed to fly-” Aurora added, before noticing that something was missing as she looked back at Ambush, “Uh… Where’s Break?”

Immediately, all four Skylanders rushed back up on deck, only to find Cali and Flynn on deck. They checked all over, even the side of the ship for any signs of their teammate. As they were looking though, Flynn himself was rubbing his eyes, finally able to see once again. “Ah, that’s better,” he said, before looking back at the Skylanders, “So, what did I miss-?”

“Flynn, can you stop standing around and help? We can’t find Prism Break,” Cali interjected him before she went over to help the Skylanders try to find their missing companion.

Of course, hearing that did not exactly register correctly inside his brain as he started walking over, “Well, all things considered, we might’ve lost him-”

“Flynn!!”

“What?” the pilot asked, not sure why Cali was snapping at him, “I’m just saying that it’s likely that we lost Prism Break in the cha-”

Fortunately though, much to the surprise of the pilot, that was not the case, “Oh, for elements’ sake! Can someone please help me up?!”

As soon as they heard that, everyone rushed to the right side near the back of the ship, finding the golem they were looking for as he was trying his best to hang on and not fall, much to the pilot’s surprise, “Oh, look, there he is!”

Cali could only facepalm herself and groan at what Flynn said, while Jet Vac let out a sigh of relief, just before he asked everyone else that was nearby a question, “While it is a relief to see that Prism’s okay… does anyone have any idea how to bring him back on board?”

In the moments after the sky baron asked that, no one had a particular solution in order to solve this dilemma. Not even Ambush had a possible way in order to save their comrade from his current predicament. But Cali did have a question for one of the Skylanders, “Hey, Jet? Can’t you just fly him up using your jetpack or something?”

“Unfortunately, I can’t. Because of some of the maneuvers that Flynn used just now, my pack got damaged. I’m going to have to take it back to the Sky Fortress to get it repaired after this.”

“Well, that scratches one idea I had,” the mabu sighed.

For a few more moments, everything was silent, only for that silence to be broken by Aurora. “Hmm……”

“Something on your mind, Aurora?” Ambush then asked.

“Well, I might have an idea for getting him on board… but I’m not sure if he’ll like it. Just got to find the right angle...” she said, before taking a moment to look down at Prism from the back of the ship. Then, Aurora hopped up onto the backside of the vessel and used her light speed to quickly move between different points along the side of the ship

“Then, I guess I’ll just leave this to you,” Ambush said, “In the meantime, I’ll be down below deck, so I can try and fix the holes in the ship.”

The Light Sensei didn’t respond back to the tree knight, for she was a little too focused on the task that she was trying to accomplish. Fortunately, Aurora found what she was looking for after inspecting several possible angles that could’ve worked. Positioned near the front of the ship on the right side, the Sensei looked at the golem as she called out to him. “Alright, Break… little heads up, but I’m going to try something. We can take it from here, but… you might want to brace yourself.”

“W-Wait, what was that last part-?”

“Blackout,” Aurora called out now, prompting the dragon to look over the side of the ship as the Sensei spoke to him, “Make sure to catch him, even if you have to stretch out all the way.”

“Wait, wha-?”

The Sensei already put her plan in motion by the time that Blackout had asked his question, conjuring a light sword in her free hand as she looked towards the golem, charging it with power as she aimed. “Sorry ahead of time, Break!”

“For wha-” Immediately, Prism stopped speaking the moment that he noticed the sword that was in Aurora’s hand, “What do yo-” Before he could finish, Aurora took the blade that was in her hand and threw it towards the golem. The weapon promptly landed underneath the golem on the side of the ship, before the blade exploded as it launched Prism Break into the air. “-nk you are dooooiiiing?!?!”

“By the elements, is she insane!?!” Blackout, upon realizing what was happening, thought to himself as he put what remaining strength he had into stretching out one of his wings in order to catch the falling Earth Skylander. His own body was shrinking from the amount of shadows he was putting into his wing as Blackout merged his feet into the deck of the ship, sweat rolling down his face as he braced himself for what happened next.

As Prism came falling down, the golem landed directly in the grasp of the outstretched wing, its feathers molded into a mitt like shape. The momentum of Prism’s fall forced the Dark Skylander to stretch ever further. The shadows where he placed his feet were now breaking apart from the deck as he desperately tried to hold on, and then, all of a sudden… the momentum stopped, Blackout having successfully caught Prism Break.

...unfortunately, his sense of victory was short lived, as the elastic like form of his shadowy body coiled back with an audible ‘boing’, right towards his face. “Oh, shoot-”

The next thing he knew, Prism Break collided with the dark dragon and knocked him to the floor. His body was back to his normal size, but Blackout’s right wing was still stretched out and wrapped around the crystal golem to the point that he looked like a cat that was caught in a bundle of string, immobile.

“Blackout… remind me to never ask any favors from Aurora ever again,” Prism Break commented with an audible groan. The fact that the Light Sensei was celebrating while the two of them were in their current state did not exactly help either.

“S-Sure thing, p-pretty lady. I-I’ll get r-right on that…” Blackout could only say, his eyes were spinning as his head slumped to the ground. 

Even though Aurora’s plan might have been successful, Cali could only grimace at the end result of that plan as she looked at Blackout, “This doesn’t look good, guys-”

Though, as soon as she tried to inform everyone about Blackout’s current state, Ambush came back up on deck as he began looking at everyone. “What’s going on? Are we being attacked again!?”

“Ahhh! Hide the enchiladas-,” Flynn then shouted, before realizing a flaw with that statement, “...Oh, wait… no more enchiladas…”

“No, Flynn. It’s not an attack,” Cali groaned, before turning back towards Ambush and letting out a sigh, “Sorry about that, Master Ambush. The blast was just Aurora’s ‘bright idea’ to get Prism back on board… but thanks to her, we need to get back to the academy even more,” at that point, the mabu turned to the dragon that was unconscious on the deck of the ship, “I’m no doctor, but I can tell that Blackout is in need of some serious medical attention.”

Ambush nodded as he looked back to the pilot that was nearby first, “Flynn, get us back to the academy as quick as you can… without any surprise maneuvers,” he told him, before turning his attention to the Light Sensei, “Aurora, if you have the time to celebrate your victories, then perhaps you can use some of that time to help those that need it.”

When Aurora heard that, as well as see him motion towards both Blackout and Prison Break, the Light Sensei let out an embarrassed chuckle before going over to help.

Leaving Flynn to fly the ship, Jet Vac stood on deck as a lookout as they set a course back to the academy, watching the stars in the night sky pass them. “Hmm… I wonder what the night sky is like down below,” the sky baron thought to himself, just as a thought came to mind, “Wait… sky below… sky-”

“…something about a Sky… shifter…”

As the words from his comrade echo in Jet Vac’s mind, he looked down below as everything began to click into place, “If that woman Blackout mentioned was referring to is who I think she was… then we might have a much bigger problem to worry about.”

Meanwhile

Warm rays of light flickered along his face as Calvin began to slowly rise up. One of the first things that he noticed upon opening his eyes was that not only was he not in his bed, but that Dusty wasn’t beside him. He was wearing his pajamas, but found himself sitting on a grass lawn as he looked around him. Instead of a dirt pathway and carriages like in Ponyville, there were cracked roads and cars in driveways.

But this place… was somehow familiar to him. He remembered this place. It was the old block where he lived. If that was possible though, it only meant one thing.

Turning around, Calvin found himself staring directly at his house, the house he called home before he arrived in Equestria.

Instinct soon kicked in seconds later, racing to the door as he opened it up, hoping that someone was inside. But instead, he found nothing. No one in the living room, no one outside, no one in the kitchen, bathrooms, bedrooms or garage either. It was as if everyone that lived here had disappeared.

“Good evening, Calvin.”

The voice, even though it was friendly, sent a small chill down his spine. Slowly, he turned around to find Princess Luna was standing in the center of the living room.

“P-Princess,” he asked, sounding scared as he looked around him, “W-Where am I?”

“Welcome to your dreams, young Calvin,” the princess told him, “I know this may seem sudden, but we need to talk.”