Prologue: Buried For a Reason
"Keep digging, boys! We ain't paying you to uncover clods of dirt!" a portly Spell Punk commanded the excavation team of Stonesapiens. "He is paying us, right?" one of them asked his friend, Dust Rouser. "Yep. And the old blowsoft won't stop whining about how much we're charging him," Dust Rouser smirked.
Dust Rouser was often proud to say that the long-missing, presumed-dead Skylander Rubble Rouser was his great-uncle. Hence the sharing of his family name th the Skylander. His heroic great-uncle had been missing for eighty-three years, and not a day went by when he didn't think about him.
The Stonesapien mining team had been digging their way into the side of a huge mountain for several weeks now, and not one of them knew exactly what they were looking for. Their Spell Punk employers had been very vague about their goal, saying only that they were searching for 'an Ancient relic of great power'.
"Alright, boys, that's enough!" the foreman called. "What? But it's barely noon!" the Spell Punk overseeing the miners demanded. "This 'ere's all you paid us for. Right t'da second," the foreman, a burly miner named Rockstubble, leered at the Punk. "So if ya want us to keep on keepin' on, cough it up," he demanded, holding out his dirty hand expectantly.
"What? But - but I can't afford to pay you more!" The portly Spell Punk, an Earth element Punk as denounced by his brown-and-beige robes, was named Lector and felt quite out of his depth. "Well then, I guess we ain't working for ya anymore, eh? Oh well," Rockstubble sighed. "F-fine! I'll call the Library and get them to send more funds," Lector blustered. "Good," the foreman nodded.
There was a brief moment of silence.
"Well? Get back to work!" Lector commanded. "When you make the call," Rockstubble evenly replied. The Stonesapien knew he held all the cards and he was loving it.
Lector groaned in defeat. "Fine," he sighed, raising his arms in the air and creating a magical window into the leader of the Spell Punks' office - or so he tried. Instead he was presented with a large Spell Punk in bright purple robes. Purple indicated the Magic Element. Magic Spell Punks were usually the most powerful, and a suitable amount of awe was usually required.
Looking at the muscular Spell Punk's folded arms, Lector decided awe would not be a problem. "This is Spellslamzer, secretary and bodyguard to the Master of Magics. Who is attempting to call him?" Spellslamzer demanded.
"It is I, Lector," Lector started, but Spellslamzer interrupted him. "You're in charge of the excavations, right? Have you found it yet?"
Lector sadly shook his head. "No, and the Stonesapiens are refusing to dig any further until we pay them more," he sadly sighed. "I can't help but wonder why the Master of Magics wants some old piece of junk like that anyway," he added in a subtle attempt to glean more information.
Spellslamzer growled. "Do not attempt to find knowledge that you should not have, or you may lose something very dear that sits above your shoulders," he warned, and Lector gulped. "Okay, okay, forget I asked," he gulped.
"Tell the miners we will dispatch further payment for another week of work. And if, once we find the artefact, they will be willing to carry it back to our citadel, there will be a bonus for them," Spellslamzer commanded, and Lector nodded, then smirked at Rockstubble. "Hear that?" Rockstubble grudgingly nodded. He appreciated being paid, but all of the miners would have liked to get out of the sweltering heat. "Back to work, big guy," the Spell Punk grinned. "Not yet. Boys! Break for lunch!" Rockstubble commanded, and grinned at having one-upped the Spell Punk yet again, if only for an hour or two.
X
Barely an hour after the miners had resumed digging post-lunch, Dust Rouser blinked as his drill glanced off something a lot harder than rock. "What was that?" he frowned, peering into the gap and seeing what looked what looked like polished bronze. "Oi, chief!" he hollered. "We've found sommat!"
Lector immediately shoved his way through the miners, frantically pulling away loose chunks of stone as the miners watched in awe at his newfound vigor, until a symbol was visible. "My god," he breathed. "All of you! Get out of here now!" he suddenly shrieked, before reopening the magical window to Spellslamzer. "Sir!" he shouted. "We found it! We found the Dark Rift Engine!"
A/N
A/N
Sort of a short prologue chapter to start out some little idea I had a while ago. If you've played Superchargers, you'll know the story about how the Spell Punks accidentally released the Darkness using the Ancients' Dark Rift Engine. I figured, what the hell? I'll write exactly how that happened. This is set seventeen years before the first game, and twenty-two years before SuperChargers. And yes, it's a spin-off of Dragon Chronicles: Revamped. Enjoy! Peace!