Chapter 1: Purple Dragon
Greetings, my loyal (hopefully) fanbase. After much debilitation, I have decided that the original version of First Portal isn't really worth continuing. I will leave it up, and I will also post the unfinished sixty-first and final chapter, but other than that, I am redoing the entire thing from scratch. Don't feel like you can get spoilers, though. Looking back, the original First Portal was rushed, overcomplicated, and keeping the plotline straight was like juggling eight balls simultaneously. So I'm wiping the story clean. Ish. Some designs will be retained. I'm going to leave what exists of the original DC and it's spin-offs online, and I will sometimes use the originals as source material. (Honestly, this decision was partially inspired by something going wrong with my device and me losing everything I'd written for A Technical Tail) But other than that, you know nothing.
Please note, this is set originally at around the start of Swap Force, and AU from there, but elements (by which I mean stuff) from all games will be involved. And I fully intend it to be swaptastic. (Couldn't resist - XD)
Also, it is with deep regret I say that this one will be focused mostly around Spyro. Looking back, the inclusion of Tails was essentially an overpowered author self-insert that, had I been more experienced, I never would have done. I am retaining some OCs - most notably Loni and Shadeblazer, but others will appear - from my older fiction, but I am attempting to focus mostly around canon Skylanders characters.
I think that's it. Enjoy!
A/N
A/N
A soft blue fire waved in the darkness of my temporary shelter. Dirt-encrusted eyes slid open, locking onto the sight of daylight at the cave's mouth. "Go time," I hissed, revelling in the flickering flames near my back.
I had been waiting things out. This was my first mission as leader of my team. I was going to do it perfectly. The low, steady hiss of the flames waving inches away from me was music to my ears.
My name? Nu-uh, that's classified. Who am I? I had been chosen by Master Eon as a Skylander. But not just any Skylander. I was the first of a new breed. A whole new batch of cookies. In that moment, I wasn't just a Skylander. I was a -
X
Spyro growled in frustration. The purple dragon had come across this scrap of parchment, falling out of a small book, that looked as though it had been torn out of something much vaster. But that was all it said. The way it was written, it seemed like part of some past Skylander's mission log. Not every Skylander kept a log, but some liked to do it to keep track of their achievements. Obviously this had been written by one of those.
"Maybe Hugo will know what to make of this," Spyro mused, carefully picking up the delicate parchment in his jaws and carrying it towards the nearest library portal.
In a flash of light, the purple dragon warped back to the library's front desk. "Ay. 'Ugo," Spyro hissed through the paper in his mouth, trying to get the Mabu's attention. The short, badger-like Mabu in his thick green hoodie and spectacles, who, predictably, was buried in a book.
Pulling the parchment from his teeth, Spyro slammed his claw down on the little, silver bell that adorned Hugo's librarian's desk.
It was large and wooden, starting near the door and curving away until it met the wall, fencing off a private quarter-circle shape exclusively for Hugo. It was marked by a thick wooden desk, mostly piled high with Hugo's favourite books. On the back wall, at right angles to the door, was a large, framed portrait of Master Eon from when he still had his body.
The bell Spyro had rung was specially designed to be heard all over the library. As a direct result, Hugo's eyes shot open at the unexpected sound of the obscenely loud bell. "Wha - what's going on? Are we under attack? Is Kaos going to destroy the Core of Light again?! Hugo panicked in shock, which rapidly turned to hysteria.
Spyro rolled his eyes. "Relax, Hugo, it's just me," He reared upwards and placed the slip of parchment on the desk, sliding it towards Hugo. "Do you know what this is from?" the purple dragon questioned, seeing Hugo rapidly scan the damaged slip. "That's strange. The actual writing's not that unusual, typical Skylander log stuff. Except the part about the writer's own name being classified, that's definitely off. It's the paper that intrigues me. It's not old. Less than twenty years. This kind of damage doesn't happen to good-quality parchment like this that quickly. And look at the edges?" he squinted, waving it at the dragon. Spyro jumped upwards and placed his forelegs on the table, getting up close. "See how it's all frayed? That does make it look like it just decayed, but the edges are too straight. If I had to guess, Spyro, I'd say that this is a piece of some paper that someone deliberately tried to destroy and then tried to pass off as damage caused by the ravages of time. The question is, why would anyone want to do something like that to a Skylander's personal logs?" Hugo explained, deep in thought.
Spyro was about to say something, but Hugo interrupted him, probably without even realising. "And the writing itself, every single Skylander who ever kept a log's logs end up in here. At least a copy of them do. But I've never seen this particular couple of paragraphs before. It doesn't make sense. I know every word that's ever entered or left this library, but this is my first time seeing these. And who would say that their own name was classified in their own journal?" Hugo frowned, not even registering that Spyro still had his mouth open to speak.
When it became obvious that Hugo wasn't going to continue, Soyro broached his own idea. "Would Chop Chop know? He was one of the first Skylanders - odds are he's met every single Skylander in history. He might know what this is about,"
"Yes, perhaps. I'm going to take a look through the archives, see if I can match up the handwriting. I do not like it when there's something in my library that I don't know about,"
Hugo passed the slip of damaged parchment back to Spyro, and turned away, already lost in thought. Spyro shrugged and padded out the door, ascending the stairs to the surface of the Palace of Light.
X
Spyro smiled at the feeling of the sunlight on the orange scales of his wings. He was a purple dragon with an orange underbelly, tail, claws and two large matching horns, as well as a row of spines with the same colour. The rest of his body was featureless purple scales, and his face wss oddly flat for a dragon, with little muzzle to speak of.
"Hey, Trig?" Spyro asked, spotting the gremlin. "You seen Chop Chop?"
"Nope. Why?" the gremlin asked. "I'm trying to work out who this . . . . . what are you doing?"
The orange gremlin was tightening a bolt on some kind of strange framework. It was big and metal and streamlined, like some kind of high-speed Arkeyan jet, but it had wheels on the bottom and no wings. "I'm building a car!" Trigger Happy enthusiastically responded. "A what?"
"It's the Earth equivalent of a balloon. Like a cart that pushes itself forwards, a bit like Drill Sergeant but bigger and with more wheels and not alive, all you have to do is steer. Andyou can put guns and missile launchers on it and make it go really fast!" Trigger Happy excitedly squealed. Spyro wasn't convinced. "Just imagine it. Bad guys are robbing a bank, setting fire to the town. Then I drive in. Boom! Boom! Bangbangbang! Howdya like getting blown up by my super-awesome car, bad guys? I'm gonna drive those bad guys crazy! Yehahahahahaha!"
"Yeah," Spyro uncertainly whistled through his teeth. "Lemme get back to you on that,"
As he left the Tech elemental workshop, he shook his head. "Looks like Trig really has been driven crazy," Spyro chuckled at his reuse of Trigger Happy's pun, then continued muttering to himself. "Whoever heard of Skylanders driving vehicles?"
X
"Hey Cali," Spyro nodded to the Mabu as they passed each other. "Have you seen Chop Chop anywhere around?"
"Nope, sorry Spyro. You seen Drobot?"
Spyro cocked his head. "Nooo, why Drobot?"
Cali put her hands on her hips and cocked a brow. "Why Chop Chop?"
Spyro showed her the damaged parchment. "I think he might know who wrote this," he commented. "Hey, you've met a lot of Skylanders throughout your run as trainer, right? Ul you know who wrote this?"
Cali squinted at the parchment. "Style kinda reminds me of someone I taught once," Spyro's eyes widened, hopeful. "Little guy calling himself Snap Shot. That croc was the second best shot with a bow and arrow I've ever seen," Cali chuckled at the memory. "Flameslinger being the best," she added. "But that was twenty years ago. He retired early, year or two before you joined. Sometimes I wonder what happened to him,"
"So you think this is his?" Spyro questioned, but Cali shook her furred head no. "Can't have been. That talk of 'revelling in the flames near his back'? Snap Shot was a water element. Can't have been him. Sorry, got nothing," she shook her head. "Oh well. See ya!" Spyro nodded, taking the piece of paper back and dashing off.
Cali carefully maintained her smile until she was sure the dragon was gone, then she let the mask slip, her eyes widening in worry. "Where in the sands of the Golden Desert did he find that? Every last word about that guy were supposed to have been destroyed, he was supposed to have been totally wiped from the public history of the Skylanders. Flynn can wait, I've gotta call this in," she muttered in shock, dashing off.
X
"Hey, Spyro," Terrafin gave the dragon the 'peace' hand symbol. "Wassup, toothy?" Spyro joked, and Terrafin laughed. He was a large, muscular, anthropomorphic shark with no tail and dozens of red legions on his back, a permanent memento of his days in the underground boxing leagues before joining the Skylanders.
"What brings you down here?" he asked. "Have you seen Chop Chop anywhere? I wanna know if he recognises this," Spyro showed the Dirt Shark the fragment of paper. "Neat keepsake," Terrafin nodded. "I'm guessing you didn't do this - like Spyro the Purple Future Librarian," Terrafin guffawed at this, while Spyro glared at him, "would ever hurt a book."
Terrafin shrugged. "Eh, I got nothing better to do, and I think I know where to find everyone's favourite robot skeleton. Follow me," The Dirt Shart pulled himself to his feet, snatched up his trademark knuckledusters, passed Spyro back the slip of paper and purposefully strode off. Spyro followed him.
X
"So this is where Chop Chop lives," Spyro filed away the information as he and Terrafin approached a steel bunker hidden within a forest island that neighboured the Palace of Light. One-storey, rectangular, low, easy to miss and probably indestructible, it definitely matched Chop Chop's tastes. "You never been here? Sadly, that don't surprise me. Old bony's always been way too secretive for his own good," Terrafin snorted, rapping, loudly, on the door. "Do not come in," Chop Chop's low, gravelly voice instructed them. "Like hell I won't," Terrafin growled, putting his reinforced knuckledusters on.
Spyro instantly realised his intentions. "I don't think that's a good idea," he cautioned the incensed dirt shark, but Terrafin had already strapped on the bronze claws. "BOO-YEAH!" the shark shouted in anger, delivering a crushing, two-fisted blow to the door. The door buckled, a deep dent appearing in it but it withheld it's integrity. Terrafin, after taking a second to make sure that his knuckledusters were undamaged, which they were, prepared himself for a second blow, but the door swung open before he could deliver, with a stern-looking Chop Chop behind it.
"Why is it that every time you come here, I end up purchasing a new door?" the skeleton rhetorically questioned. "Hello, Spyro. What brings you here?" the robot politely added at the sight of the purple dragon.
Chop Chop was a skeleton, magically animated by the Arkeyans more than ten thousand years ago and trained as a soldier. His gear told the same story, wearing thin blue shoulder plates and breastplate, as well as metal boots and gloves, not to mention perpetually carrying his twin scimitars and enchanted shield. Chop Chop had been one of the first Skylanders to join the at-the-time-budding peacekeeping group ten thousand years ago, and due to his inability to age and die of natural causes, and his great skill preventing him from ever being killed by an opponent in battle, meant he had lived through almost everything that had ever happened to the Skylanders, and he never forgot anything.
"Well, maybe you should actually open ya door when someone knocks!" Terrafin exclaimed, irritated at the skeleton. "And maybe you should learn that some people find that certain other people aren't the sort of people you want to open your front door to," Chop Chop critically patronised the dirt shark, before turning to Spyro. "Unlike him, I presume that you have a reason for coming here, sir," Chop Chop nodded in respect, and Spyro gulped. Technically, he was the leader of the Skylanders, even though no one really thought of him that way. Yet Chop Chop insisted on calling him, and all the other figures of importance in the Skylander ranks, sir.
Spyro gave the skeleton the piece of paper he had found. "Do you know who wrote this?"
Chop Chop quickly scanned the paper, and even though nothing was visible brhind his helmet, Spyro sensed a change in the Arkeyan's gaze. "You should forget you ever saw this," Chop Chop declared, and closed the damaged door in the other two Skylanders' faces.