//------------------------------//
// Scroll 28- Prelude of Advancements 
// Story: Beyond the Skies 
// by FrostTheWolf 
//------------------------------//


Beyond the Skies- Prelude of Advancements




In the short time since his endeavours in the Realm of Dreams with Princess Luna and the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Calvin had taken it upon himself to take his experiences in there and apply it to his training. Whether it was in his room or in the training area at Skylander Academy, he focused his efforts on maintaining his Imaginator form longer, alongside what his teacher had taught him. At one point, he had even tried to recreate some of the abilities that he could do in the dream, yet the results were rather mixed. Nevertheless, it was an improvement from when the Skyshifter first started. Though, he knew that he still had a lot to learn. After all, King Pen always told him that there was room for improvement.

Such was the case for today as he made his way down the stairs. He had another lesson with his Sensei this morning and wanted to make sure that he didn’t run late. As he walked to the kitchen, he was surprised to find that Spike was teaching Dusty how to cook again, along with there being a small stack of waffles that they just finished making. “There we go,” the dragon spoke as he turned to face the lava pup that was next to him, “Nicely done, Dusty.”

“T-thank you,” Dusty squeaked at Spike’s praise, “I-I think I could do b-better though.”

“Well, each new recipe is a chance to practice more,” Spike assured her in an effort to ease her doubt, “We probably still have some time to make a few more before Calvin wakes up-”

“Good morning.” 

Both the dragon and the lava pup turned around the moment that Calvin spoke up. The two of them were not anticipating for him to be up so early, especially Dusty. She wanted to prepare her master a proper breakfast this morning and thought that Spike could help her. Unfortunately, due to some setbacks, they weren’t able to make enough food in time.

Naturally, this led to Dusty doing the first thing that came to mind when she saw Calvin this morning. Apologize. “M-Master, I’m so s-sorry,” she said, jumping into Calvin’s arms and burying her face into his shirt before he even had the chance to sit down, “I-I wanted to m-make something for you, b-but I c-couldn’t-”

“Woah, s-slow down a moment,” Calvin told her as he tried to process what was happening, “W-what’s the matter?”

It was then that Spike let out a small sigh, “Dusty wanted to surprise you with breakfast this morning and asked for me to help. We were trying to make waffles, but we ended up overcooking several of them.”

That just had Calvin chuckle a small bit, “Come on now. It can’t be that bad now right?”

“Over half of the waffles that we tried to make are burned and beyond edible,” the dragon deadpanned, motioning his head to where the trash can was before pointing to the plate of waffles on the counter, “Those two are the only ones that didn’t end up like the others.”

“Oh,” he said to himself, before looking back to Dusty as he began to pet her to try and calm her down, “Hey, it’s okay. I appreciate that you wanted to do something like this for me, Dusty. Though, don’t try to force yourself to improve. Just take things one step at a time, and I’m sure that you’ll get better.”

The lava pup looked up for a moment and smiled at hearing what he said, before the two of them looked towards Spike to see him make another waffle and get out two plates. Placing two of the waffles on the new plates that he got out, he set each one of them on the Cutie Map as they all took a seat. “I guess we’ll have to make due with one each,” Spike replied, before going back to get some syrup and butter. As he returned, the dragon had a question form in his mind that he wanted to ask, “So, did you have anything going on today, Calvin?”

“Well, I have another lesson with King Pen back at the Academy today,” he said, putting a small amount of syrup onto his food and then helping Dusty by doing the same thing with her food, “Why do you ask? Did Twilight need me for something?”

“No, nothing like that,” he shook his head, “Twilight and the girls are in Manehattan for the grand opening of Rarity’s newest store, so I thought that I could hang out with you while they’re gone. Though, it sounds like you’re busy-”

What the dragon said actually gave the Skyshifter an idea as he decided to speak up, “Actually, if you want, you and Dusty can come with me. I mean, you probably heard Twilight talk about the academy so much, but never had the chance to see it yourself. What do you think?”

That had Spike blink for a moment as he realized what Calvin was talking about. The only times that he had seen the Skylanders that Calvin knew was when Spitfire crashed into the Castle after his trip to Griffonstone and when he encountered the dragon named Spyro at the door to the castle’s basement. “That would definitely be awesome,” he replied, “What do you think, Dusty?”

Yet, for the fire dog, she was preoccupied with something else at the moment. Earlier, while Spike and Calvin were talking, she touched the maple syrup with her paws out of curiosity. Now, the syrup had hardened on her paws because of the heat from her body, and she was having trouble getting it off. Dusty even tried to rub it off on the seat that she was on, only for her to slip and tumble down onto the floor. She tried to get up, but all that did was cause her to slide uncontrollably before crashing into the trash can and ending up covered in burnt waffles.

“Dusty, are you alright!?” Calvin asked, getting out of his seat to see if she was okay.

“O-oww…” the fire dog groaned, trying to shake off the trash that was on top of her and straighten herself up.

“How did that happen?” Spike asked, just as Calvin looked down at her paws and noticed what looked to be a hardened maple glaze that was over her paws.

“I think she was curious about the syrup and ended up touching it with her paws,” he said, pointing it out to Spike, “I honestly didn’t expect that though.”

“M-master, h-help me,” Dusty groaned again, trying helplessly to get the hardened syrup off of her paws to no avail, “I-I can’t get it off!”

“Hang on, Dusty. I think we can just wash it off,” Calvin assured her as he looked around the room, before picking up the lava pup and bringing her to the kitchen sink. He turned on the faucet to let the water run first, before looking back to the nervous puppy, “Here, let me help.”

As her front paws made contact with the water though, an unexpected chain reaction occurred. Steam began to surge from her paws and spread everywhere as it got in Calvin’s eyes. Seconds after putting Dusty’s paws under the water, he moved them away and blindly tried to turn off the sink.

At one point, he heard the water faucet turn off as he began to slowly open his eyes. The first thing he saw was Spike standing by the sink and wiping his eyes with his claws as he looked back at him. “Next time, please warn me first.”

“S-sorry about that,” Calvin apologized, before looking to Dusty as he saw that the maple glaze that was originally on her paws was gone, “Hey, Dusty, are you alright?”

“I-I’m okay, master,” she spoke softly. “I-I can’t feel my paws though.”

“Something tells me that’s because of the water your paws were soaked with,” Spike guessed, “Best guess is that it’ll probably wear off after a little bit.”

“B-Best guess?!” Dusty spoke up now as she looked back at the dragon, “What if you’re wrong?!”

“Dusty, Spike’s only trying to help,” Calvin told her, trying to calm her down, “Can you channel your heat into your paws? Maybe that can fix it.”

At first, the little fire dog seemed confused by what he was asking her to do. Though, after a couple of moments, Dusty began to understand what she needed to do and began to channel the heat from the rest of her body into her paws. In a matter of seconds, she was able to feel her paws again and happily thank Calvin in the process.

In Calvin’s mind though, this was indeed a happy moment. Yet, it was for a different reason entirely. To him, it was because Dusty was able to figure out how to solve a problem she was in without having to be given exact orders about what to do. It was a great deal different than when she was first starting to stay with him, that was for sure and it made him feel proud of her for doing so.

Though, that moment was soon interrupted when they heard Spike get their attention, “So Calvin, what time is your lesson supposed to be? I don’t think it would be good to have you running late.”

“If I remember correctly, it’s supposed to be at eight,” Calvin told him.

Spike, after hearing that, looked to the clock on the wall and let out a sigh of relief when he saw that it was only seven-thirty, “Then, let’s get everything cleaned up here first before we leave. It wouldn’t be a good idea to have Twilight and the girls come home to a mess like this.”



After the mess in the kitchen had been cleaned, Calvin took a moment to make sure he changed into his regular clothes before coming back down towards the stairs that led to the door to Skylands. He didn’t really have to carry anything major with him to these lessons like a notebook, because lessons with King Pen did not involve having to sit around and take notes in a classroom. Instead, the lessons he would be taught either consisted of learning new techniques or practicing the ones he already knew, whether it was against a training dummy or a few spare greebles that Buzz still had lying around.

As he came back down to rejoin Spike and Dusty, he happened to overhear them talk about something… odd. “Could you repeat that, Dusty?”

“It’s… I don’t know w-what to think of it. It’s s-so good, but it’s so hard to r-remove it,” the fire dog said to the dragon, “I-I don’t like having c-conflicting thoughts. R-Reminds me of my… old h-home.”

That thought made Calvin a bit worried for a moment. He was trying everything he could in order to help Dusty move on from what she had to go through when she and her siblings were living with Tribus. Yet, hearing this made him think that he did something wrong, like he was not doing enough to help her. Then again, being the master of a living lava puppy wasn't easy to begin with.

Letting out a small breath, he approached the two of them before looking at the lava puppy, “Hey, it’s not all that bad, Dusty. We all experience those kinds of thoughts sometimes, but we always find a way to overcome them,” he told her, gently patting her head, “Not only that, but you managed to survive, along with your siblings. Despite everything that was going on, they still cared for you throughout all of it. In a way, it only made those bonds stronger.”

“B-But, Master,” she said, uncertainty on her mind, “T-the things that I had to do-”

“They still loved you, regardless of what you did,” Calvin comforted, “They still care for you, and so do I. So, don’t let those kinds of thoughts scare you, alright?”

At first, Dusty was a bit anxious. Though, if this would make her master happy, then it wouldn’t hurt to try. With a nod of her head, she followed Calvin and Spike as they walked out the basement door of the castle and stepped forth into the Mysterious Ancient Place. Both Dusty and Calvin were already somewhat familiar with the M.A.P. already. Spike, on the other hand…

“Holy scales, what is this place!?!”

The sudden exclamation startled Calvin at first. Though, considering that this was the dragon’s first time coming here, it was sort of expected for the dragon to be thrown off a bit at first. “Welcome to the Skylands,” he told the young dragon, “Trust me when I say that it’s much bigger than you might think. Where we are right now is more like a living map of Skylands, that changes along with it,” at that statement, the dragon looked back at him with a puzzled look and was about to ask a question, yet Calvin beat him to it. “Before you ask, I honestly have no idea how it works.”

“Actually, that’s not what I wanted to ask,” Spike said, before pointing at what looked to be a distant island, “I was going to ask… what is that?”

The island itself looked to be part of a landmass that was connected to the rest of the M.A.P. and had a stone temple and what looked to be two tiki totems in the front and some palm trees. There even seemed to be some music coming from there. Yet, it wasn’t a place that Calvin was familiar with.

“To be honest, I’m… not entirely sure,” he told the dragon, “Though, maybe someone at the academy does.”

“And where exactly is the academy?” Spike now asked, looking around as if he was trying to find where it was.

Instead of replying, Calvin made the motion for Spike and Dusty to follow him as the Skyshifter began to walk towards the entrance to the academy. As they got closer, both the fire dog and the dragon saw what looked to be a platform with a glowing circle in the middle. Though, they weren’t quite exactly sure what it was supposed to do.

“Master? What is this thing?” Dusty now asked.

The Skyshifter looked back to the lava puppy and smiled, “That is how we get in. It’s a teleportation pad.”

Spike blinked when he heard that. He was way too familiar with teleportation because of the amount of times that Twilight would use it for day to day purposes, but this was new to him. “So, wait… by walking on it… it teleports us?” The dragon watched as Calvin just replied by simply nodding his head, before a new question began to surface in his mind, “Where does it take us?”

“Well, every time I have used it, it teleports me to the front of Skylander Academy,” Calvin explained to him as he approached it, “Would you like a demonstration or-?”

“No, no. I think I get it,” the dragon shook his head, before looking to the pad itself, “We just step on it, right?”

The Skyshifter nodded, before stepping aside as he let Spike and Dusty be the first ones to try it for themselves. With a deep breath, the dragon stepped forward as a flash of light went off around him. Despite the times that he had experienced teleportation while with Twilight, Spike could never get used to the flash of light that happens when it occurred. Such was the case here where, after arriving, he had to rub his eyes and have his vision readjust.

As he opened them again, Spike couldn’t believe what he was seeing at first. In front of him was a giant courtyard of creatures that definitely didn’t look to be from Equestria. From walking skeleton dogs to what looked like a hybrid between a dragon and a dragonfly, Spike was unsure if what he was seeing was actually real at first. A few moments later, he turned to his left to see Dusty come in next and with Calvin coming in right behind her.

“Welcome to Skylander Academy,” the Skyshifter told both of them, “It’s… quite a bit to take in at first.”

At first, the dragon and the fire dog were silent, but then Spike broke that silence as he looked back at Calvin, “This place is just crazy,” he replied, “Crazier than anything I’ve read in the fantasy section of the castle library.”

“If you think it’s crazy right now, then just wait until we go inside,” the Skyshifter chuckled as he looked back at his two companions, “Follow me. The training room where my lessons take place is over here.”

The fire dog and dragon looked at one another for a moment, before they began to follow Calvin to the entrance of the academy and down the hall. As they were walking, Spike tried to look into any of the rooms that they happened to pass by. One of them looked to be a workshop that was being led by a bug-like creature that wore a helmet with two curved spikes and carried a pair of matching hammers. Another room had what appeared to be a mutant plant in a martial arts uniform teaching a botany class. Each one that they passed had something going on or someone inside that caught the dragon off guard, whether it was a band of skeletons in the teacher lounge or passing by a crystalline dragon that strangely reminded him of Rarity. He even stopped walking and stared at the dragon as they continued down the hallway and a small blush formed on his face.

It was only when he felt a tap on his shoulder that the dragon snapped out of his temporary trance as he turned around to see Calvin right behind him. “Hey, is everything alright? Dusty noticed that you were just standing in the middle of the hallway, and you didn’t seem to notice me trying to get your attention.”

“Oh. uh… s-sorry about that,” he said, turning back around and finding that the crystalline dragon he had seen before was now gone, “I w-was just a bit… distracted.”

“Yeah, there’s a lot of things to see around the academy,” Calvin told him, patting him on the shoulder for a moment, “Though, we’ll save the tour for later. We’re near the training room, and it’s almost time for my lesson. It’ll be rude to keep my sensei waiting.”

Shortly after the Skyshifter told him that, Spike nodded his head and walked back over to regroup with him and Dusty. Once they were together, Calvin turned around a corner that was on the left and stopped in front of the door. He first knocked on the door to see if there was anyone on the other side, only to be met with silence. As the Skyshifter opened the door, he found that the room was empty, and there were no signs that anyone had been in there recently.

“That’s weird.”

“What’s weird, Master?” Dusty asked him.

“It’s not like King Pen to show up late,” the Skyshifter answered Dusty’s question as he began to look around the room, “If anything, he’s usually in here, waiting for me to come in.”

“Maybe he got lost,” Spike shrugged his shoulders, “I mean, with how big this place is, he could be any-”

Immediately, the first thing that the dragon saw after turning around was white feathers. As Spike slowly looked up, he found himself looking directly at a giant penguin that had battle armor on its chest and what looked to be metal blades on their flippers. They even had a helmet that looked like something he would see the ponies in the royal guard wear while on duty and a golden sash around their waist.

It didn’t take long for the penguin to notice him, and for them to say something, too, “Why, hello there,” they said, sounding rather surprised, “I wasn’t aware that I would be having visitors today.”

The response just had Calvin let out a small sigh, “He’s actually a friend of mine,” he replied, before turning to look at Spike and Dusty. “Spike, Dusty, let me introduce you to King Pen. He’s one of the Senseis at the Academy and the one who’s been teaching me over the last few weeks.”

“H-Hi,” Dusty squeaked, a little intimidated by the Penguin’s massive size. When King Pen turned to look at her, he couldn’t help but bend over to get a closer look as he put a flipper to his chin.

“Hmm… Dusty, right?” King Pen’s question was followed by a small nod of her head, before the Sensei asked a new question, “Are you related to the fire dogs that are staying at the academy by any chance?”

After King Pen asked that question, Dusty was silent. Though, Calvin and Spike both noticed that the molten lines on her face were beginning to glow a bit as the fire dog tried to look away nervously, which left Calvin to answer King Pen’s question for her, “Actually, she is. The other dogs you mentioned are her siblings.”

“Ah, that’s wonderful to hear,” the Sensei replied back, “I love it when family members stick together.” After he said that, King Pen took a moment to clear his throat as he looked back to Calvin, “Though, now that we have the introductions out of the way, I say it's time we get started with today's lesson. Your friends can stay and watch from the stands if they want to stick around.”

Once they heard that, the dragon and the fire dog walked over to the stands on the other side of the room and took a seat on the bottom set of stands that were the closest to where King Pen and Calvin were standing. Both the Sensei and his student were in the center of the room now as the two of them turned to face each other before King Pen began to speak.

“Alright. Now, Calvin, before we begin, there’s something I want to tell you first,” the Brawler Sensei informed him, “What we’re going to be doing for today’s lesson is slightly different from what we have been doing with your training so far.”

After hearing that, the Skyshifter seemed rather confused as he looked back at his teacher, “How different are we talking about here? Is this a test?”

“Not exactly,” King Pen explained as he lifted up a flipper, “If you may recall, we first started your training by teaching you the basic capabilities of the Brawler Class, including teaching you about elemental abilities. From there, we covered secret techniques and let you practice what you learned against some of the leftover Greebles that Buzz has lying around. Afterwards, I taught you about combining all three of these different pieces together.”

As he lowered his flipper down, the penguin had a new question for his student, “Now, what was the lesson that we were covering last time?”

Calvin was quick to respond on that, “The last lesson was about concentration. I had mentioned to you last time that the more times I turn into a particular form, the longer I can stay in that form.”

“That’s right,” King Pen smiled, “Though, since our last lesson, I came to realize something. Any time that I’ve had you train, it’s either against a wooden dummy or Buzz’s greebles, and you’re probably already used to it by now. However, one of the most crucial aspects to being a Skylander is to always be prepared for the unexpected, to adapt and overcome any new challenges that they might encounter. So, for that reason, today's lesson will involve you training against a different opponent.”

That had Calvin stop for a moment as he looked back to his teacher. The first thought that came into his mind after hearing that was not a comfortable one, “Am I… going to be fighting against you, Sensei?”

“Nope,” the penguin shook his head, “You will not be facing me.”

“Oh, good-”

Unfortunately, that temporary sigh of relief did not last long, “Your opponent today will be Spyro.”

“Wait, what-?”

Before he could finish his sentence, the two of them heard a creaking sound from above them. As they looked up, an all too familiar face fell forward and crashed in between King Pen and Calvin. It was a purple dragon with golden horns, a Skylander of the Magic Element, who slowly rose up from the floor and brushed off any dust that got on his scales.

“Not the kind of entrance I was going for, but I guess it’ll do,” Spyro remarked as he looked around the room for a moment, just before noticing the other dragon that was in the room, “Hey, I remember you. You were at the other side of that weird door Stealth and I found. What was your name again? Was it… Barb or something?”

The dragon that Spyro was talking to had no idea how to respond at first, before he let out a sigh and decided to correct him, “It’s Spike.”

“Oh, so that’s what it was! Sorry about that. All I remembered was that it involved something sharp and pointy,” the purple dragon apologized, before he looked towards Calvin, “Hey there, Calvin. You have been rather busy since the last time I saw you.”

Calvin scratched the back of his head nervously, before the Skyshifter looked back at Spyro, “Yeah, that sounds about right,” he replied back, “Seems like you’ve been rather busy yourself.”

“Pfft, as if,” the dragon told him as he rolled his eyes, “The only exciting thing that I’ve been involved with has been boring classroom lectures and losing a bet to Cynder.”

“You had a bet with Cynder?” Calvin now asked, “When did that happen?”

“About a week ago, when that one moon pony princess was here and chasing Hoot Loop all over the place,” Spyro answered, “We were betting on how long he would last before getting caught, but unfortunately… it didn’t go so well for me.”

“Oh. So, that’s why she was at the academy,” Calvin said as he let out a small breath, “I was wondering about that.”

“In any case,” both the dragon and the Skyshifter heard King Pen interrupt their conversation, “Spyro is here to see how your training has gone so far and see how you can adapt to change. As you may know, the different opponents you may face will require different strategies to beat. So, for today, we’re going to see how you can adapt in battle against another Skylander.”

To Calvin, that definitely seemed like an important skill to learn, especially if you were up against the various minions that Kaos had at his disposal. “Sounds like something I can do. When do we get started?”

Spyro grinned at Calvin’s remarks, before readying himself as King Pen stood off to the side. Flames were beginning to form around Spyro as he prepared his first attack before the Skyshifter even had the chance to transform yet. “Time to get all fired up!”

In a matter of seconds, Spyro launched the fireball towards Calvin as he was forced to jump out of the way to dodge it. “Woah, why are you attacking me before I even transformed yet?”

“Do you think bad guys are going to just wait for you to change before they start attacking?” the dragon asked.

The Skyshifter blinked for a moment as Spyro’s words began to sink in, “… I… Wow… I didn’t even think of that-” before he could finish though, another fireball flew past his head as he snapped back to what was happening right now. “Oh, come on!”

“You’re going to need to try harder then that, Calvin!” Spyro taunted.

Calvin didn’t have the time to respond as he tried to think of a plan to buy himself enough time to transform. He tried to distance himself from his opponent, so he could be out of reach of his fireballs. However, his opponent caught on and that led to the dragon charging at him to close the distance before attacking again. 

“Well, that’s just great. If this keeps up, Spyro’s going to keep on pestering me about this for weeks,” he thought to himself, dropping to the ground as fireballs in three different directions flew above his head, “How the heck am I supposed to be able to fight him when I can’t even change forms?!”

“Come on, Calvin! I was expecting a challenge!” he heard the dragon taunt again, “When are you going to stop dodging and actually fight-?”

However, it was just as the dragon sent another fireball at him that something… unexpected happened, “Leave my master ALONE!!!”

In an unforeseen turn of events, Dusty leaped from her seat on the stands and jumped in front of Calvin. Immediately, she let out a bark that unleashed a wave of hot air at the incoming projectile. When it made contact, the fireball began to split into three smaller fireballs that were flying back at Spyro in a scattershot.

“What the-!?” The dragon was thrown off guard by several things when that happened. The main reason being that he didn’t expect for a small fire dog to jump in front of one of his attacks and somehow bounce it back towards him. He barely dodged the first two fireballs, but the third one struck him directly in the face as he was knocked back to the ground. As he tried to get up, he found himself stumbling about, his eyes clouded in a confused haze.

As for Calvin, he had only one question to ask as he looked back at the lava puppy that was in front of him, “Dusty, what… just happened?”

The fire dog turned to the Skyshifter and tilted her head to the side as she looked at him, “I helped master!”

At first, he wanted to try and correct her. Though, that was when he realized something. Dusty’s intervention just now gave him the chance that he needed to transform without having to worry about Spyro’s attacks interrupting him. Taking a moment, he changed into his imaginator and looked over towards the lava puppy before bending down and petting Dusty on the head.

“Thank you for helping me, Dusty. Though, let me handle this, alright?” With a nod, the fire dog raced over to where Spike was sitting as the Skyshifter looked to the stumbling dragon at the other end of the room as he crashed into a support pillar, “Hey, Spyro, are you alright?”

“I-I’m okay!!” Though, mere seconds after he said that, the support pillar that he struck began to collapse as a section of the roof landed on top of him, “I-I’m still okay!” Then, the pillar itself fell onto him. “...Still oka-ay!” he shakily said.

“Um, Mr. King Pen?” Spike now spoke up to catch the sensei’s attention as he looked at the penguin, “Should we… I don’t know… intervene? Something doesn’t seem right with Spyro.”

“Nonsense!” King Pen responded, “He just needs a sec to get back up on his claws, and he should be just fine-!”

BOOM!!

In a matter of seconds, the room began to fill with smoke as everyone looked towards where Spyro was as the purple dragon was climbing out from the wreckage in the corner of the room. “I-I’m still… wait, how did I even explode!?!”



“Um… what was that just now?”

“Oh, so that’s where I stored those traps… guess I need to find out who triggered them. If it’s not important, I’ll be right back, Jet Vac.”

Jet Vac starts to stack his documents together on his desk as he continued to speak, “Are you sure? I could just stack these aside and come al-” As he looked up from his work, he soon realized that he was talking to an empty room and the old mabu had already left, which had the Sky Baron sigh and grumble in a slightly whiny voice, “… Oh, I hate it when he does that! … Guess that’s more work for me for now till he gets back… sneaky old mabu.”

“You know, I’m still here,” The papers scatter as Jet Vac suddenly panicked and looked up to the old mabu, who was using his cane to climb the ceiling near a large window. 

“What the-? How did you even-? Oh no! My papers!” he shouted as the Sky Baron looked at his newfound mess. “Now, see what you mad-” As the Air Skylander looked up again, the old mabu had vanished again. “Gah! Consarn it all!”



“Maybe we should take a break first before continuing,” Spike now suggested, “Let him have the chance to think straight first-?”

“How many times do I have to tell you guys? I’m okay! Don’t worry about me,” the Magic Skylander shrugged it off, soot from the recent explosion literally falling off as he tries to shake off his previous damage.

“You just… Do you even…?” the little dragon could only let out a sigh as he looked back at Calvin as he face-clawed himself, “Great, he’s now sounding like Twilight when she tried to understand Pinkie sense.”

“Should I even ask?”

“Long story short, Twilight tried making sense of Pinkie and ended up with a piano being dropped on her,” Spike quickly summarized the whole ordeal so that he didn’t have to explain everything word for word.

Hearing that though only had Calvin shrug as he now looked back at the Magic Skylander, “Well, if Spyro says that he’s okay, then maybe we should get back to what we were doing. Now that I changed forms, I can actually fight back now.”

“That’s the exact opposite of what I was suggesting-” Spike tried to correct Calvin. Unfortunately, his attempt to try and reason with him did not entirely go so well.

“Hey, Spyro? Are you ready to pick up where we left off?” the Skyshifter asked as he took up a fighting stance.

“Am I?!”

“Oh, dear Celestia,” Spike groaned, now face-clawing himself with both of his claws as he watched the Magic Skylander charge into battle. Yet, Spyro was not exactly charging at Calvin in a straight line. If anything, he was moving all over the place and swerving left and right, like if Rainbow Dash tried to go flying after drinking too much cider.

This made the Skyshifter think that the fight between them right now was less of an actual fight and more like a game of tag. Any time that Spyro got close to him, he would just simply fire dash farther away and have the dragon keep pursuing him. However, this also made it harder for Calvin to actually attack his opponent, because they never really stayed in one spot. He kept on moving all over the place and made it difficult for Calvin to do anything.

After a few failed attempts to try and attack Spyro, the Skyshifter started to think of a new plan of attack. Each time that Calvin tried to hit him, the Magic Skylander would just dodge or roll out of the way of his attacks. If he could get the dragon to stop running around and stay in one place, then he could strike him with something hard enough to knock him out of his personal daze.

As he looked to another support pillar in the room, the Skyshifter ran over and stood in front of it before looking towards Spyro, “What’s the matter, Disaster Dragon? Having trouble keeping up with me? Gonna cause another bit of chaos?”

“Oh, I’m going to make you eat those words!”

Immediately, Spyro fell for the taunt and began to charge directly at Calvin. Yet, the Skyshifter couldn’t move out of the way just yet. He had a plan in mind and if this plan was going to work, then he needed to wait for the right moment to pull this off and not bolt out of the way too early. 

It was as the purple dragon was charging till he was mere feet away that Calvin made his move. Quickly, he dashed out of the way the moment that Spyro began to close in on him. Instead of the Magic Skylander hitting his opponent with his horn charge attack, Spyro ended up hitting his head against another support pillar as he stumbled backwards. The blow to his head made it even more difficult for him to see straight as the dragon tried to not fall over onto the ground.

Two seconds later, as he turned himself around, Spyro was blindsided by Calvin as he was struck in the face with a Megaton Punch. The force from the strike was enough to send the dragon flying back as the Magic Skylander collided with the wall on the other side of the room. The Skyshifter was unsure if his plan would work at first. Though, after seeing his attack throw Spyro across the room like a football, he was relieved to see that it worked as well as it did.

However, there was one thing that he didn’t quite expect, “Well, so that’s what all the commotion was about.”

When he turned around, Calvin found none other than Buzz standing at the doorway to the training room as the mabu was looking at the little remaining soot across Spyro’s body. “Guess you were the one who came across my missing explosive traps, eh?” he asked as the dragon slowly got up, taking a moment to inspect him, “Odd, though. The amount of explosives missing should have dealt more damage than that.”

“W-wait... there’s MORE of them?” he asked, only to get a simple head nod from Buzz as the dragon groaned and began to lean against another support beam, “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”

As the dragon leaned back, he banged his head back against the pillar in annoyed frustration. However, doing so caused a crack to quickly race up the wooden pole and towards the ceiling. When Spyro looked up, his eyes widened as another section of the roof came loose, “Oh, come o-”

Unfortunately for Spyro, he was too tired out to move and couldn’t get out of the way of the falling piece of roof that landed on top of him. Calvin and the others wanted to help him, only to be stopped when they heard the Magic Skylander speak, “ … Oka-ay… I-I’m not so okay…!” the dragon called out, before he noticed something, “Wait… what’s that beep-”

BOOM!!

The sudden explosion still startled Calvin, Spike and Dusty as they had to watch Spyro get blasted for the second time in a row. Though, Buzz kind of struck a much different tone as he walked over to the dragon, “Ah. There’s the rest of them,” the mabu said, before turning towards Calvin, “Best we call your training short, young Skyshifter. I don’t think our young hotshot here can take much more.”

“Would you like some help in taking him to the infirmary?” King Pen offered.

“No need. I can handle it,” Buzz declined the sensei’s offer, “Besides, I got other places to be, and I would rather not be late.”

For a moment, Calvin was confused by what Buzz was saying as he looked back at King Pen, Spike and Dusty. From the looks on their faces, they were also having trouble trying to figure out what exactly Buzz was talking about. Though, they did not have the chance to ask him as they heard the sound of some people running in the halls as they were coming closer. 

When Calvin stepped out of the room, he found Hot Dog racing down the hall with Sheer alongside him, something that caught him by surprise because he honestly thought that Skippy would be with him instead as the two fire dogs approach the door. “Calvin, what’s going on? We heard a loud bang just now from the other side of the campus.”

Before he explained anything, Calvin took a moment to change back to his normal appearance as the Skyshifter looked back to Hot Dog, “Well, from the sounds of it, Spyro accidentally stumbled across some old traps that Buzz forgot about during my lesson today, and they blew up in his face. Twice.”

“Oh my,” Sheer gasped, “Is he going to be okay?”

“Well, Buzz was going to take him to the infirmary, and-” as Calvin looked back inside, he found himself staring at a mostly empty room with no sign of Spyro or Buzz anywhere, “Wait… where did they go? They were just here a few seconds ago.”

“Honestly, your guess is as good as mine,” he heard Spike comment now as he stepped out of the training room with Dusty following behind him. 

“Dusty!” Sheer beamed at the sight of seeing her sister, “You’re actually out and about? It’s so good to see you!”

Originally, the fire dog was a bit nervous. She didn’t expect to run into one of her siblings so soon, especially while she was with her new master, “H-hi, sis.”

Even though Dusty’s greeting was simple and friendly, Sheer saw it as somewhat surprising. Back before they were rescued from Tribus, Dusty would not do anything unless she was ordered to. So, to Sheer, hearing Dusty speak without being told to do so was a sign that her sister could possibly be back to her old self again… given time, of course.

The small pause in their conversation was soon broken when Spike asked a new question, “So, now that Calvin’s lesson is… well… on hold, what should we do now-?”

“THERE YOU ARE!!!”

“Uh oh-” Hot Dog commented, shortly before he found himself getting tackled from behind by another fire dog. This time, it was Skippy as she had Hot Dog on the ground and was getting rather too close for comfort.

“Where have you been?!” Skippy immediately asked Hot Dog as she stared directly into his eyes, “I had been looking all over the academy for you since breakfast and couldn’t find you anywhere!! Do you know how much you scared me-?!”

“S-Skippy?”

The comment from Dusty made her sibling stop what she was doing almost immediately, before turning towards her as Skippy pounced towards the lava puppy, “Dusty!! Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh!!! You spoke on your own!! Does this mean what I think it means!?” Before anyone could stop her, Skippy let out a gasp as she smiled and began to hug her sister tightly, “You’re back to your old self again!!! Oh my goodness, this is amazing!!!”

“Skippy, I… think you’re assuming a bit too much-” Sheer tried to tell her. Though, unfortunately, it would take more than that to get her sibling to calm down.

“Come on, Sheery! Don’t be a downer! This is an exciting moment!!” her sister beamed as she looked back to Dusty, excitement coursing throughout her entire body as she looked back at her sibling. “So, what brings you here to this amazing place, Dusty?! I bet it was to share some good news-!!”

“A-Actually…” Dusty interjected, “U-um… M-master had a l-lesson here, and he asked if I-I wanted to join him.”

Once she heard that, Skippy’s excitement began to simmer down immensely. Her ears began to drop as she looked back at Dusty with a look of disappointment on her face, “O-oh… S-so, you’re not like your old self again. Darn it, I had an idea for a special party-!”

“I don’t think it’s that bad, Skippy,” Calvin tried to help out, “Not everything happens immediately, but we’re working on it. I’ll do everything that I can to make sure that Dusty will be as happy as you and the rest of your siblings.”

Of course, that had Skippy look back at the Skyshifter before raising a paw in the air. At first glance, it looked like she wanted him to shake it. Though, that was when the lava puppy asked him one thing, “Skippy Promise?”

For a moment, Calvin blinked. When he looked towards Spike, he had a look of uncertainty on his face as the dragon looked back at him. Though, that wasn’t enough to try and convince the Skyshifter that this was a bad idea. Without any hesitation, he took hold of the outstretched paw and gently shook it, “Skippy Promise.”

“Uh, Calvin?” Sheer spoke up, “You do realize that when you accept a Skippy Promise, you have to fulfil it, right?”

“That definitely sounds familiar,” Spike commented.

The Skyshifter had a different response to what Sheer told him though as he looked back to Skippy, “I chose to look after Dusty and be her new master because I wanted to help her, because I wanted her to be happy, and I’m going to do everything to make sure that both she is happy and that you are happy for her as well.”

“I’m happy to hear that,” the fire dog said, before getting up close and whispering into his ear, “You wouldn’t want to know what’ll happen if you didn’t keep your promise.” Before Calvin could even ask about what he just heard, Skippy pulled away as the fire dog put on a smile and happily walked over to where Sheer was standing.

“O… kay,” Hot Dog spoke up now, “So, back to what Spike was asking earlier, what did you guys want to do now?”

“Well,” the Skyshifter scratched the back of his head as he looked back at the fire dogs, “Originally, I was thinking of showing Dusty and Spike around campus, since this is their first time here. Though… I don’t really know the campus as well as some of the other Skylanders here.”

That had Hot Dog reply back to him shortly after he finished, “You know, that’s actually not a bad idea. Maybe we can have King Pen help us, too.”

What the fire dog suggested was not a bad idea. After all, King Pen was a Sensei at the academy and probably knew everything in the school like it was on the back of his flippers. Though, when Calvin went back inside to see if he was still around, he found the training room to be empty with no sign of the Sensei anywhere. There wasn’t anything around the training room that could’ve told him where he was either, like a note.

“Hey, guys,” he then asked, before looking back to Spike and the fire dogs, “Did you happen to see King Pen at any time while we were talking? He’s not inside the training room.”

Each one of the fire dogs looked to one another for a moment, before all four of them shook their heads. Even Spike shook his head alongside him, because he didn’t happen to see King Pen either. That in itself was definitely odd, because the Sensei was not exactly known for disappearing randomly like Buzz or Stealth Elf. He would always be up front and tell them if there was somewhere else that he had to be.

To Calvin though, that just meant that he needed to take some time to look around first, “Hey, Hot Dog, how about you show everyone around campus a bit? I’m going to go see if I can where King Pen is.”



Elsewhere…

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” Buzz told everyone that was present in the chambers of Master Eon. Alongside the Mabu and the Portal Master were Jet Vac, Master Ambush, Snap Shot and Master King Pen as they all stood around a giant circular table that was in the center of the room, “I’m sure that all of you know the reason why you are here?”

“Jet Vac and I know for certain,” Master Ambush was the first to speak, “Though, it would not hurt to explain again. It can help bring everyone up to speed.”

“All I know was that Master Ambush and a few other skylanders were on an important assignment, but nothing outside of that,” King Pen explained, “Mainly because I’ve been busy with teaching here at the academy.”

“And I’ve been busy keeping an eye on the inmates at Cloudcracker,” Snap Shot added, “So, why call us together? Is there a problem?”

Now, it was Eon’s turn to speak as he let out a sigh and looked at both the sensei and the warden, “In a manner of speaking, yes. The assignment that the Skylanders that were assigned to Master Ambush was a recon mission. We had lost contact with two different Skylanders who were trying to find information on Kaos. Thanks to the efforts of Ambush’s team, we were able to uncover their whereabouts.”

“Who were the Skylanders?” Snap Shot now asked.

“The first Skylander was Trap Shadow, one of the Swap Force that specialized in reconnaissance tactics,” Buzz replied as he tried his best to explain to the Trap Master, “The second one was Stealth Elf, who was only in the field to try and figure out where Trap Shadow went after Master Eon lost contact with him.”

“Thanks to our team, we were able to determine where they are now and began to piece together what exactly happened to them,” Jet Vac now spoke up, “Both Trap Shadow and Stealth Elf ended up getting caught by someone new that resides at Kaos’s Castle, and they were taken to a place called the MaguDome.”

“The What?” King Pen asked.

“The MaguDome,” Buzz now took a turn to speak, “Apparently, it’s a Colosseum that’s run by a drow elf named Magus. Some other Skylanders had encountered him before back in the day, and back then, he was nothing more than a washed up villain. However, he’s now using the colosseum, the gladiatorial games he runs and the skystreams of those games to promote himself and Kaos.”

“Okay, but how exactly do we know if this is actually true or not?” Snap Shot questioned.

“Well, when our team was looking for them, I chose Blackout to be the one who went into Kaos’ fortress,” Master Ambush now spoke up, “As he was inside, he found a skystream being hosted by Magus that was being watched by some of Kaos’ guards and saw both of our missing Skylanders on the stream.”

“Wait a minute,” the penguin now interjected, “Isn’t Blackout in the infirmary-”

“The injuries that he sustained were after he left the castle… and something that I will need to have a talk about with my niece later,” Master Eon now took a turn to speak, before looking to Ambush, “Now, is there anything you can tell us about where they are being held?”

“I can do that. In fact, I actually have someone undercover there.”

That response from Buzz was enough to draw everyone’s attention to him. Especially since they all had different questions going their minds. “You… have someone… that’s undercover there?” Jet Vac asked, “Please don’t tell me it’s that Softpaw guy.”

“Nope. After his recent endeavors with the Rat Kingdom, I decided to have Softpaw take some time off to recuperate,” the mabu answered him.

“Well, that’s… fortunate.”

Of course, Jet Vac’s sigh of relief only lasted for about three seconds until Buzz caught him off guard, “My undercover agent this time around is Snuckles-”

“Are you NUTS!?” the Sky Baron snapped, “Out of all the people in the Skylands that you could use, why him?”

“Apparently, he actually got a part time job at the MaguDome as a T-Shirt Vendor. He’s been sending his information to me inside rolled up shirts that he sells,” the Mabu asked, unrolling what looked to be a scroll that was inside a navy shirt that had Kaos’s symbol and the caption ‘I watched Kaos take over Skylands and all I got was this lousy t-shirt’ on the front, “Of course, now my office just has a bunch of villain shirts that I really don’t need, especially since they’re not my size.”

“What kind of information did he find?” Snap Shot asked, trying to get the conversation back on track. It was around this point that Buzz began to open the scroll and spread it out across the table. The scroll was actually an outline of the entire colosseum. Not just a foldable handout that you would find at a tourist booth, but a blueprint of the entire complex.

“Well, after taking a lot of time to look this over, I’m thinking that Magus is being flat out paranoid because of all of the security measures that he has in place,” the mabu explained as he pointed at several security installations throughout the place, “He’s turned the colosseum into an impenetrable fortress. According to Snuggles, they have measures in place that prohibit any Skylander from trying to go through the main entrance or even view what’s going on… and even if they did and get caught…”

“They would just end up like Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow,” King Pen said, “Master Eon, can’t you just recall them back to the Academy?”

“That is something that I have already tried,” the portal master told them, “However, my attempts to reach them were unsuccessful.”

“Mainly, because of a special machine right here,” Buzz pointed out on the map in an area that was labeled ‘press box’ and a machine that was inside the press box room, “The Omni Disruptor. The intel I have received so far from Snuggles suggests that the device is capable of cutting off a Skylander’s link with Master Eon and the Portal of Power, making any attempts at communication futile. The device also blocks any attempts to recall them back to the academy while it’s active.”

“How…” Jet Vac paused, before clearing his throat as he looked back to Buzz, “How… did he get his hands on that information?”

“Oddly enough, it was part of the new hire tour around the facility,” the mabu told the sky baron.

“So, if we even tried to send in a rescue team, they’ll just end up in the same position as them,” Snap Shot said as he grit his teeth, “Dang it, what are we going to do? Those are our comrades out there. Trap Shadow and Stealth Elf are counting on us to rescue them, but everything you showed us makes coming up with a plan harder.”

“Snap Shot, let’s not assume the worst just yet,” Ambush cautioned the trap master, “I believe Buzz still has more to share.”

“That I do,” the mabu nodded, “Like I mentioned earlier, Magus has all these different security measures in place to keep Skylanders out. Heck, he’s made the whole ‘Skylander free’ thing part of his business module. Though, according to my agent, it seems that the only people he does let in are either fans attending the events or new fighters looking to participate in his games.”

“Okay, but that doesn’t even seem remotely helpful,” Snap Shot shot back, “If we tried to pose one of our Skylanders as a gladiator, it would be too dangerous, especially with that Omni Gizmo he has. Who would we even send in?”

That just had Buzz smirk as he looked towards King Pen, “Funny that you ask that, Snap Shot,” the mabu smirked, “I happen to have ran into someone earlier today that might be the most capable for a mission like this.”

At first, King Pen seemed confused. Though, after a few seconds, he started to realize who Buzz was referring to, “Wait… You’re not suggesting who I think you’re suggesting… are you?”

“You told me yourself that he’s been making significant progress with his training,” the mabu told him, “I think it's time we put that training to the test.”

“Are you talking about that ‘Skyshifter’?” Snap Shot asked, watching as King Pen and Buzz nodded their heads, “That just seems risky. You’re wanting to have a rookie go in and do a full on rescue operation? There’s no way that they would agree to this.”

“Well then,” Buzz said, before looking past him and towards the shadows that were in the back of the room, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?”

For a moment, things were quiet as everyone else looked towards the same shadows that Buzz was looking at. Yet, nothing was happening. There didn’t seem to be anything that was hiding there as Snap Shot looked back towards the mabu, “Buzz, what are you talking about? There’s nothing there.”

“Wait for it.”

As Snap Shot looked back, he was thrown off guard by the sight of something rising up from the floor in the shadows. At first, it looked like it was Blackout that was in the back of the room, but a small flash of light reverted the figure back into their regular form as Calvin stepped out of the shadows. In Snap Shot’s mind, reading about his abilities was one thing… but witnessing them first hand was something else entirely.

“How did you know that I was there?” Calvin asked as he looked towards Buzz. The question was enough to get Buzz to laugh as he looked back at him.

“Kid, I’m an expert at hiding out of view,” the mabu told him, “and that includes knowing when others are doing it.”

That had Calvin let out a small sigh as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment, “I… should’ve kept that in mind.”

“That was rather impressive,” King Pen commented, smiling at his pupil.

“Impressive? With all due respect, Master King Pen, your pupil infiltrated a meeting that was supposed to be private,” Jet Vac interjected, “How did he even know that we were in here?”

“Well,” the Skyshifter spoke up now, “I was trying to find King Pen, but then, I heard Snap Shot from outside mention something about Stealth Elf needing a rescue… I think you probably get the rest.”

That response had both King Pen and Ambush look towards Snap Shot as the crocogator began to realize his mistake. His outburst from earlier could’ve been heard by just about anyone that was passing by in the academy. Buzz though saw it as a chance to ask Calvin another question, “So, Calvin… about what I was mentioning earlier, what do you think? You think that this is something that you can do?”

It took a moment in order for Calvin to think of a proper response, but after some time, he had an answer, “I think so… but not by myself.”

“Oh?” the mabu asked, “What were you thinking?”

“If I have a partner that I can talk to, then I can relay any information that I find in there. Besides, it would seem a bit too much of a task to have someone do by themselves,” the Skyshifter explained the thought process that was going on in his mind, “For something like this, I can stick to just my Imaginator form only and look like I’m just a drow elf taking part in the competition. Anything I find in there, I can tell my partner, and they can use that to form a plan.”

“Plus, since you would be a competitor, you would be able to access areas that typical employees would not be allowed to access,” Buzz grinned, “Boomsticks! I think something like this might actually be possible.”

“I must ask something though,” Master Ambush now interjected, “Why would you volunteer for such an operation? Even with all the risk involved?”

It took a moment for Calvin to compose his thoughts and figure out what to say, but after a bit of thinking, he had an answer for them, “Back when I first learned about the Academy, Stealth Elf was there to help me every step of the way. She even helped me awaken my Imaginator and got me to start my training with King Pen. She’s done so much to help me that it would be shameful to not help her when she needs it the most.”

His answer surprised everyone in the room. Though, out of all of them, it surprised Snap Shot the most. When he first read about Calvin, he was not sure about what kind of person he was. Now, the Trap Master saw the Skyshifter as someone who would go to any lengths to help his friends as well as someone who knows that they couldn’t be able to handle everything by themselves. Honorable enough to want to repay his debts, yet smart enough to know when it was too dangerous to go alone.

“Well, looks like there’s no point in convincing you otherwise,” Buzz told everyone in the room, “Though, the only question that I can think of now is who would accompany him?”

The entire room was quiet at first. Both of the senseis looked to be conversing between one another while Jet Vac and Master Eon looked to be deep in thought, trying to come up with an answer to the mabu’s question. 

It was only after a few moments that they heard an answer from someone they didn’t expect, “I’ll do it.”

Now, all eyes were on Snap Shot as they looked back at the Warden, “Snap Shot, are you sure about this? What about CloudCracker-?”

“I have a team that can fill in for me while I’m gone,” the crocogator interjected before Jet Vac could finish, “If we were to have someone come with him, it would have to be someone in this room so that news of what happened to Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow doesn’t spread like wildfire around the campus. Plus, all three of you have duties as teachers here, and everyone would get suspicious of what’s going on if you cancel your classes unexpectedly.” After he finished, he then looked to Buzz and asked the mabu another question. “How much time do we have to prepare?”

“Well, according to my agent, the MaguDome is hosting a ‘charity’ combat tournament called Battalia,” he replied, “It’s scheduled to begin in two days, and they’re still looking for contestants.”

“That probably should be enough time to prepare,” Snap Shot told them, “Not as much time as I would like, but at least it’s something.” He then looked to the other Skylanders in the room as well as Master Eon, “Does this work for everyone else? I'd rather not get too ahead of myself if you’re not on board with this.”

“I’m all for it,” King Pen was the first to respond, “In fact, I can use those two days to help teach Calvin a few tricks that can really help him for a competition like this one.” That had the Skyshifter personally look back at the Sensei with a curious glance as he tried to think a bit about what exactly he meant.

“I agree with my fellow Sensei,” Ambush was the next one to speak, before looking towards Jet Vac, “What do you think, Jet Vac?”

The Sky Baron took a moment to look at every person that was in the room first as he tried to process what was in his head. Shortly afterwards, he let out a sigh, “Well… it’s not like we got any other ideas. If this is the only way that we’re going to bring Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow home, then I say we do it.”

That resulted in a nod from Master Eon as he now took a turn to speak, “Then, it is settled. We will have both Calvin and Snap Shot take part in an operation to rescue Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow two days from now.” The portal master then turned to look at Snap Shot and Calvin as he continued to speak, “In the meantime, take these next two days to make all the necessary preparations that you need, so you can be ready for anything. We are counting on you to make sure that Stealth Elf and Trap Shadow are back at the academy safe and sound.”

With that, everyone in the room was dismissed as then began to walk towards the exit. Calvin and King Pen were the last two people to leave the room, but it was as they were leaving that the Skyshifter asked the Sensei a question, “So, what kind of tricks were you planning to teach me, Sensei?”

All the penguin did was smirk, before patting him on the back, “Well, we’re going to be using the next two days to come up with something brand new,” the sensei told him, “Something specifically tailored to how you fight and something for you to use as your ace in the hole.”

“That sounds awesome,” the Skyshifter told him, “Now though… comes the hard part.”

“What do you mean?” his teacher asked him. For a moment, Calvin was quiet. Yet, after a bit, he told his sensei what was on his mind.

“How am I going to explain this to Twilight?”




End Scroll 28