Prologue

'Beep, beep, beep!' Went the annoying sound of the alarm clock by 16 year old Ireland's bed.

'Note to self: Unplug this thing!' She bitterly thought as her hand slammed down hard on the off switch and dragged herself out of bed.

Today was just like any other summer day at the Regan's house and Ireland knew the routine like the back of her hand. When her mother was at her tennis match it was: Wake at 8:00 to do chores, which included practicing piano, watering plants, making sure her 12 year old brother, Joshua, didn't sleep in too late, and feeding the dog, get at least 40 minutes of treadmill in, shower, and finally wait for mother to get back so they could go for lunch and maybe a movie after... Yep, the usual summer routine of a 16 year old.

At first glance, there wasn't anything that seemed super special about these siblings. They were both fair skinned, blue-eyed, and brown-haired. The only difference between them was that Joshua also had glasses. They both did well in school and even had the same twisted sense of humor as the other.

But Ireland and her younger brother were anything BUT ordinary. They were portal masters, apprentices to the great Master Eon himself. A while ago they had gone an amazing journey to save the magical world of Skylands from the evil portal master: Kaos. Narrowly stopping him for using the magic within an ancient volcano to rule these floating islands.

Ever since that adventure, the siblings had been collecting and training the skylanders that had fallen to Earth, using their portals of power to send them back, and battle the forces of darkness.

Ireland commanded the Magic, Life, Undead, and Air skylanders. While her brother Joshua was mostly in charge of the Tech, Fire, Water, and Earth skylanders (yes, even the girl ones!).

But, that was over a year ago, and even though training new skylanders was fun, the siblings secretly missed being summoned to Skylands for real to kick some evil butt. But they hadn't heard from Cali, Flynn, Hugo, or even Eon himself for a long time. Kaos wasn't done yet... Not by a long shot. So why no activity in need of portal master attention for this period of time.

"Come on, Josh!" Grumbled Ireland, shaking her brother, "If you want to see 'Planes' today we have to get done what we have to before mom gets back, ya know."

At the mention of the film that Joshua had been dying to see for weeks he sprung out of bed.

"Don't worry sis! I'll be finished before you can say Glumshanks!"

Giggling at her brother's enthusiastic attitude for so early in the morning, the brunette left the room for her brother to get dressed. She then proceeded downstairs to get the mail that had been delivered through the slot in the door. Taking it to the counter, Ireland proceeded to sort the mail into piles, for bills, coupons, junk mail, etc. Near the bottom of the pile was a worn looking envelope, but what caught Ireland's eye was who it was addressed to: Masters Ireland Regan and Joshua Regan, Planet Earth.

"JOSHUA! COME DOWN AND SEE THIS! AND BRING THE 'PACKS' WITH YOU!" she shouted with a high pitched chatter upstairs, which followed by a fast scrambling in the game room and a rushed stumble down.

"What? What is that?" asked Joshua, seeing his sister holding the envelope and tossing their backpacks all too gently on the floor in the hallway, and whispering a quick 'Sorry!' to the backpacks now sprawled across the hall floor. The backpacks were full to the brink with their skylanders that were of the element that they controlled.

"I'm not sure yet! But look at the symbols below the address!" Sure enough, right below the address was a scramble of gibberish symbols that no one would ever be able to decipher. But this wasn't gibberish at all to the siblings. This was the very language Eon taught them when they first set foot on skylands. All that the symbols said was the exact same thing as on top, simply in a different, more ancient, language.

"Well hurry up and open it! It could be another mission and they'll need us!"

"Already on it," she grinned, already beginning to slowly shift and tear the top. After opening it, she reached into pull out the paper, only to be greeted with not a paper but a blinding light and a sudden sucking sensation.

Next thing the siblings knew, they were sprawled face first on a soft and slightly scratchy patch of flowers and grass, and all the skylanders from their packs materializing beside them.

"Well, it seems our much needed portal whatchamajiggers have finally arrived with a very sweet entrance... almost as sweet as me. BOOM!"

Recognizing that oh-so-boastful voice tone, Joshua lifted his head, and his suspicions were, unfortunately, confirmed. Flynn, the mabu, and, supposedly, 'best' pilot in all of skylands was standing only a couple inches in front of them.

"Oh, crud," Josh growled hatefully through his teeth. Ever since first meeting this spotlight yearning mabu, he really hadn't been on Josh's good side much. Although there was one occasion on their last mission where this view changed... a little.

Before any mayhem could start between these frenemies, Hugo said in pleasant tone, "Hello, Masters Ireland and Joshua-"

"Please Hugo, we told you a hundred times before, just call us Ireland and Josh." Ireland said slightly irritated, cutting the hedgehogish mabu off as she slowly stood up.

"Oh-! Why of course! My apologies!" He laughed awkwardly before continuing, "As I was saying before, I hope our little 'transport' letter wasn't such a rough ride, was it?"

"Oh, no... no. We LOVE opening an 'oh-so-mysterious' letter," she exclaimed sarcastically, while doing the finger gestures, "that 'just-so-happened' to appear at our 'particular' doorstep and then being sucked through a magic portal!"

"Oh! Wonderful!" exclaimed Hugo, not recognizing the sarcasm, "That was Flynn's idea!"

Having overheard this, Josh's annoyance to the pilot mabu only seemed to increase... and not in Flynn's favor.

"Hugo..." He half-whispered at the corner of his mouth, "Stop talking!"

Just as Josh's hands began to sparkle with electricity, which was a special ability he had developed through his training, a gloved hand blocked the future mabu barbecue.

"Okay, you two 'lovebirds'," Cali said, while glancing annoyed between the two, "fighting is not on top of our 'to-do list' right now!"

"Oh, really! Then WHAT is at the top of this 'list' right now!" Josh half-shouted while flailing his hands about.

"Yeah! Why exactly are we here right now Hugo...? It's been over a year since you've called us personally!" asked Ireland, cocking her head slightly.

"Well... let's just say that there is some good news... and then some bad news."

"Great! Why am I NOT surprised!" exclaimed Josh, throwing his hands in the air.

"Let's start with the bad news first though. Our sources have told us that Kaos has, unfortunately, seemed to have teamed up with a particular mad scientist of some sort from your world of planet Earth."

The Regan siblings were silent as they stared at Hugo with wide eyes.

'Three... two... one.' Cali counted in her head.

"WWWWHHHHAAAAAA!" Shrieked the siblings with panicked anime eyes.

"Wh-wh-what do you mean from Earth!" Ireland asked in a panicked tone.

"Y-yeah! I thought our world was neutral in magic! That's why the skylanders that land on Earth are ACTION FIGURES!" her brother asked in the same tone, "No offense Spyro," Josh quickly added to the Magic purple dragon.

"None, taken Joshy!" came the reply.

"It is!" confirmed Hugo in surprisingly calm tone, "This scientist doesn't seem to use magic at all. It is simply the power of his brain."

"You mean brainpower?" asked Joshua, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes, I believe that is what you Earthlings call it."

"Lovely!" Ireland rolled her eyes, "and the good news?"

"Master Eon has found 8 new portal masters to assist us in our little fray with Kaos."

"What? Why?" Joshua asked now confused.

"Trust me, I am just about as confused as you are Josh," Cali confirmed, "but apparently, Master Eon thinks that we're going to need some help this time."

"Since when have we needed help?" Joshua complained.

"Josh, Master Eon has his reasons, and if he has chosen more portal masters, whether they are full time or part time, he did for a reason... maybe we'll have a hard time defeating Kaos on our own this time." Ireland shot back at her brother, causing him to drop his head in defeat and start muttering something like "you do have a point".

"Anyway," she continued turning back to the spectacled mabu, "do you happen to know who these new portal masters are? Or even what they look like or where they live?"

"Indeed I do Ireland! I was hoping you would ask!" Hugo started to dig in his worn out backpack and pulled out a newer looking scroll and handed to the female portal master.

Ireland opened it to reveal 8 people standing in a row, 5 boys and 3 girls.

The first boy had blonde hair, light blue eyes, and was wearing an olive-green shirt over a brown T-shirt with beige cargo shorts. He seemed to be the tallest of the group. Over his head was a raindrop, the symbol for water.

Next to him was was a teenage girl who was slightly shorter than him. Her face was round by general appearance and her eyes possessed a shade of blue. Her hair was orange and flowed freely down to her shoulders. A notable physical trait of hers was her unusually long neck. She was wearing a red tank top and a white skirt fastened to her waist by a red belt. With that was a pair of short red socks underneath a pair of white Mary Jane shoes. Above her head was a swirling symbol, representing Air.

Next to her was a boy wearing a black shirt with a skull on the front, set up in a "Punisher" style. He also had large, red hiking boots, with green khaki shorts. His hair was brown and cut in a buzzcut style. He had deep blue eyes, and also appeared to be somewhat overweight. Above his head was a small range of mountains, symbolizing Earth.

The next boy seemed to be from Indian descent, with the darkest skin out of all of them, dark eyes, and black fuzzy hair. He had on a light blue t-shirt and blue overalls with two buttons and a pocket in the middle. He also had on blue and white sneakers and blue socks. Above his head was the magic symbol for Skylands, an eight pointed star.

The fourth boy looked the most unusual out of all 8 of the people. He had short, spiky deep red hair, a triangle shaped head with a large pointy nose, and large, dark blue eyes. He had three freckles near his temple and also had a slight but noticeable slouch. He was wearing an orange and off-white striped t-shirt, blue cargo shorts with large pockets, and blue high-top sneakers with no noticeable socks. A small pillar of flame was over him, meaning he was the fire element.

The boy next to him also looked unusual, but not by much. He was wearing a collared beige shirt with a button, very high-waisted dark purple pants with a light purple belt and black tennis shoes. His hair was thick, scruffy and leaf-green. His head was tall and rectangle-shaped, with a large cubical nose, and also shaped like an "F". He had dark blue eyes, one of which was larger than the other. He had a gear of sorts over his head, the Tech symbol.

Next to him was a girl with long, black hair with thin blue highlights, curtain-like bangs and a round bottom, an oval shaped head with a flat top, and dark blue eyes. She was wearing a pink dress with a white T-shirt underneath and a deep purple belt, white socks and pink shoes with white laces. She also had a pink bow on her head, just below the Life symbol, which was a small bundle of leaves.

The final member in the group was a teenage girl with blue eyes, dark brown hair, which she had long and freely down her back. She was wearing a tight-fitting black leather coat, black long pants and black calf-high boots. Her clothes were in the basic military Goth fashion. Her skin had a bit of a yellow tint to it as well. She was the Undead member of the group, showing the skull was above her.

"These are them huh?" asked Joshua, looking over his sister's shoulder.

"Man... that kid with the fire's got a weird shaped head," commented Flynn, who was surprised that Josh hadn't made a move to pummel him, but only nodded in agreement... for once.

"Yep," Ireland nodded, "looks like we're going on a bit of a road trip. Flynn, prepare the Dread Yacht!"

"You got it!" saluted the Mabu, before running toward the 'cursed' airship.

"We're taking that thing again?" Josh got a panicked expression on his face.

"Oh, don't tell me that you actually believe that Flynn's ship is 'cursed' little brother," she teased, "that's just a myth."

"Oh, yeah? Well then explain all the mishaps that happened while we were on it for our last adventure huh? It crash landing in CloudBreak Islands and having a crazy land shark do the REPAIRS!"

"Do you believe that the ship is really haunted Cali?" asked Hugo with a confused look. The only response he received was a shrug.