Chapter 2

Looking All Over

Sonic Boom stood at her balcony, tears streaming down her face, not knowing how she was able to take it. She had just lost her best friend, and she'd done almost nothing to stop it.

She was the only one who truly knew of what had actually happened, which was something she hated. She wished that the other Skylanders could know, but none of them, she believed, including Spyro, would be able to take it the right way, whether they trusted Cynder or not.

Sunburn laid on their bed, still fast asleep. Sonic Boom looked at her mate, wishing she had the strength to tell him everything. But it just wouldn't come.

She looked over into the eastern part of the sky as the sun began rising, and thought of all the times Cynder had been there for her, as well as when she'd been there for Cynder, from when Sonic Boom had joined the Skylanders only a week after Cynder had, to where Cynder needed someone to talk to after being saved from Malefor's evil clutches.

She wondered if Spyro had learned of Cynder's disappearance yet, if his mate was gone. But she knew she'd find out sooner or later.

Sonic Boom heard Sunburn stirring behind her and looked over at him. As he opened his fiery yellow eyes, she smiled at him, as did he.

"Good morning," he greeted softly. "How do you feel?"

"Okay, I guess," she lied. "I'm just stressed from the battle and what happened to Spyro. You know, the usual. Do you know if he's awake or not?"

"No, I don't," he said. "But I think when I go see him, I'll go get Cynder first. She'd be happy to see him. What'll you be doing?"

"I might just go over to Shattered Island for today. If Cynder asks where I am, just tell her to meet me there, okay?" Sonic Boom smiled at him one last time, and then took off into the sky.

As she flew, she once more thought of Cynder, and wondered what terrible torture she was now going through. She wished the black dragoness had never made the terrible deal. Although it had been one that had included saving Spyro, there had been a devastating price involved. But Sonic Boom didn't know if the price had been the same as Cynder had said or if the little tyrant Kaos had double-crossed her and done something else.

It took her thirty minutes to get all the way to Shattered Island, where she saw all the broken-up islands. She remembered having come to the same place to find Cynder after she'd been taken by Malefor.

One of the Mabu looked up and waved at her. It was Quigley, the little Mabu who had asked all the Skylanders strange questions after they'd come to help save the islands from Kaos.

Sonic Boom landed and looked around. She then turned to Quigley, who was smiling very brightly, without any pain.

"Hey Quig," she greeted. "How's everything going for you?" She forced a small smile.

"It's okay," he said. "You know, school never really helps anyone, especially waking up for it, you know?"

"Um, not really. Anyway, I'm looking for a friend of mine. Have you possibly seen a black dragoness anywhere? She has metal bracers around her ankles with spikes, a choker with spikes, and her black scales have a very violet-like hue. Do you know who I'm talking about?"

"Are you talking about Cynder, or someone else?"

"Yes, Cynder. Have you seen her at all in the past few days?"

"Well, I'm not the best person to ask. You should probably go into town and ask some of the townspeople. They would know better than me."

She nodded at him, and then began making her way into town. She saw some of the Mabu staring at her, and knew it wasn't the best place for a griffiness to be, as female griffins were very rare.

She saw the town hall, and entered through the front door.

One of the main guards stopped her as she attempted to make her way through the entrance to the mayor's office.

"Whoa, why are you here?" asked the guard.

"I'm here to talk to the mayor. I need to know if he might have seen or talked to someone. Please, I'm one of the Skylanders."

"Usually, the mayor says that the main Skylanders he'll talk to have to be captains or Spyro. I think he also mentioned Cali. Anyway, are you a captain of an Element?"

"Yes, I'm the captain of the Air Element. I just want to talk to the mayor, please. It's not an emergency, I just need to ask him a few things."

"Alright then, please go right on through."

Sonic Boom continued on into the mayor's office. She saw the fat Mabu mayor look up at her, a smile on his face.

"Well, well, if it isn't one of the Skylanders. It's nice to meet you!" he said in an excited voice.

"My name is Sonic Boom. I'm the captain of the Air Element," she told him. "I need to ask you a couple of things."

"Like what?"

"Do you remember when a few of us came her to find someone about a week or so ago?"

"Yes, I do. Is this the same sort of situation, or something different?"

"The same sort. One of our friends has gone missing. Her name is Cynder, she's the captain of the Undead Element. I just want to ask you if you've seen her at all. She's a black dragoness with silver metal bracers on her ankles, a silver choker around her throat, a bracer on her tail, big blue eyes, six horns on her head, and markings around her eyes. Her scales also have a violet-like hue. Have you seen anyone around her that looks like her?"

The mayor looked at her strangely, and then answered.

"No, unfortunately. I wish I had, because I would love to help you find your friend, but I'm not sure I can tell you if she's been around. I'm sorry about that."

Sonic Boom got up and began leaving the room. "It's alright," she said. "I just want to find her soon, because this is starting to worry me."

"Don't worry, it'll probably all get resolved sooner or later," the mayor told her happily. "And once it does, I might come to the Ruins to meet you all!"

Sonic Boom didn't say anything back, her head hung.

Once she was gone, the mayor's expression became that of anger and deviousness.

"We ned to make sure that her little dragoness friend, Cynder, never returns," the mayor said. "I know who she's talking about: the infamous Terror of the Skies. From what I've heard, she's attempted to redeem herself by joining the Skylanders. Amazingly, she even became a captain. Hmph. Make sure that if you actually see her, kill her on sight!"

"Yes sir," said the security guard. "What about the griffiness? What do we do about her?"

"If she comes back, knock her unconscious, and then we can kill her. Another thing we should do is find Kaos. I have some words for him..."

Sonic Boom couldn't believe she'd come to Shattered Island for nothing. Cynder hadn't even been seen, and that was the worst part of it all.

She wanted to make sure her best friends was safe and not hurt, and to make sure Kaos hadn't done anything to her. But at that moment, she began to lose some of her hope.

What can I do? she thought. Should I just return to the Ruins and tell Spyro that I was unable to find her? Sooner or later, he'll find out, especially because Sunburn already said he'd go to their treehouse to get her. Now it's not going to be helping at all. I don't know what kind of an excuse I can make.

She opened her wings to fly once more into the air, and began making her way to the Ruins.

Cyn, I know you can't hear me, but I just want you to know that I need you to come back. I don't know how some of us will be reacting at all, because without you, nothing will be the same anymore! If only Kaos had never threatened Spyro at all, then this never would have happened, and you wouldn't be missing all over again. Hopefully it never turns out like last time did. If it does, I'll never be able to truly recover, nor will any of the other Skylanders. I just need to make sure that nothing bad happens now between us all in your absence.

After another thirty minutes, she landed near the Core of Light, where she saw the medical tent, and that there was movement going on inside. She saw Sunburn appear, and then took a deep sigh, realizing that he'd found out.

"Sonic Boom!" he called to her. "I have bad news. Cynder's missing, and we don't know where she is. Would you know at all?"

"No!" she lied. "How is this possible? She should be around, shouldn't she? Did you check everywhere?"

"No, and I'll be going down into the Underworld, but if we don't find her there and she doesn't come back in the next few days, I have no idea what we can do. This is not a good time for all this to happen, especially not with Spyro just waking up today!"

"How's he taking it so far?"

"He's scared, just like all of us. We don't know what could have happened, since she was here last night! Did you see her at all over at Shattered Island?"

"No. But for right now, let's stick to the objective of finding Cynder and helping Spyro to heal. Come on, let's ask him where we should go once he heals up completely, okay?"

When they entered the medical tent, they saw Stealth Elf leaving, who gave them a grim expression. Spyro laid there in front of him with an expression of fear on his face. He saw them, and Sonic Boom saw that his eyes were beginning to tear up.

"Spyro, don't worry, we will find her," Sonic Boom vowed. "We just need to make sure we know where we can possibly find her. Do you know the place we should go when you heal up? Shattered Island won't be the right place, because I went there just to be there, and she wasn't there at all."

"I don't know. For right now, we need to wait," he told her. "We can't just go all around like last time, because last time many things happened, including some of us being injured." He remained silent, and then his eyes widened. "Wait a minute...do you guys remember the strangers?" After they both nodded, he continued on. "While I was fighting one of them, they had Eon's sword with them. I forgot about it when he was killed by Cali. But we need to go there and check it out. After that, we come back here and plan it all through. Do you agree with me?"

"Yes," said Sunburn.

"Yes," said Sonic Boom. "But what about the others? Whirlwind and all them? Should we get them to help us?"

"They will be coming," came Hex's voice from outside the tent. She entered with a small smile on her face. "I asked them all, and they all said yes. Now what we need to do is get ready for this. Should we go to Shattered Island?"

"No, I've already gone there," Sonic Boom told her. "I asked around if they'd seen her, but they didn't say anything, unluckily. But we could always try the Underworld again. I wonder if there's some way that she could be down there, or if there's something we could find down there that might act as some evidence for us. Oh, how I wish this wasn't like last time!"

She walked out of the tent and saw her other friends coming towards her. Whirlwind didn't look like her normal self, with dark black rings underneath her eyes, caused by the stress of the last battle with Kaos. Camo stood next to her.

"Do you know what happened?" Whirlwind asked. "How did Cynder go missing all over again?"

"I don't know," Sonic Boom admitted. "I just need some time to get this all through my head. She's my greatest friend, and without her, I don't know what I can actually do!"

Sonic Boom realized that she was sounding like Spyro, but knew that she was unable to help it, since she cared so much for the black dragoness.

"This isn't a good time for this to happen!" Camo exclaimed. We just finished a battle, and Spyro got his ribs broken, which left Cynder probably feeling terrible, and now she's gone missing! What in the heck is Skylands coming to?"

Sunburn looked over to Whirlwind.

"Me and you will be going down into the Underworld together to learn if there is anything we might be able to find. Hopefully there will be some sign of Cynder down there. If not, then there we'll just be returning here."

Whirlwind nodded, but Sunburn and Sonic Boom both saw her hesitation, and they couldn't blame her. After all, the Underworld was a dark and evil place, and not many were known to not be afraid of it.

"I'll stay here and make sure whether or not she returns here," Sonic Boom told them. "It's possible, and I'm sure this won't exactly be like last time...or so I hope, at least."

"What should I do?" Camo asked them.

"Go over to Leviathan Lagoon and ask the natives if they've seen her or not," Sunburn suggested. "I just hope they're not angry at us for the battle with the strangers."

"Wait!" came Spyro's voice from inside the tent.

"What is it?" Sonic Boom asked as she entered, the others behind her.

"When I was fighting one of the strangers at Leviathan Lagoon, they had Eon's sword, with the amethyst in the pommel, and the one that was said to have been lost in the Battle of the Outlands," Spyro explained. "We don't know what happened to it after that stranger was killed, because I forgot during our little battle. When you go there, ask the natives if they found the sword at all. We need it back, because it might help us."

Camo nodded, and smiled in a grim sort of way. Sonic Boom noticed that that kind of a smile was all anyone was ever doing now, mostly due to the past events.

"Is there anything else?" Sonic Boom asked, finding it hard to get the words out of her throat. "Should we do anything else?"

"No. I just want Cynder to be found. Let's hope I can get out there soon, because I really want to help you all. She's the Dragoness I love, and all I'm doing is laying here, injured and sleeping! I should be up and helping you all, helping her! How in the heck is this ever going to help anything in my life?"

"Stop!" Sunburn snapped. "You know you're wrong! Right now, you can't do anything, not as long as your ribs are healing! Cali and Stealth Elf can hurry to fix them up, but don't surprised if they can't do it as fast as you hope!" His voice became softer, but he was still unhappy towards Spyro's words. "Look, we all want to find her, and we've all gone through this before. Keep your faith with you, because that's what truly helps in the end. Okay?" He nodded at him, and then left the room, Whirlwind close behind him.

"What should I do?" asked Spyro. "What can I do?"

"Maybe you should just talk to Hex. She might be able to help you, just like she helped Cynder," Camo told him. "I hope to see you return on the field with us very soon."

He then left the medical tent. Only Sonic Boom remained.

"I'll stay with you for right now. I know the feelings you're going through. Cynder told me about that night after we saved her, when you found her by the Core, how you both talked. When she finished telling me, she began crying. When I saw it, it helped me to know exactly how much she loves and cares about you, and I thought that even more when she saved you from Kaos. She came in right at that time, and she was able to scare the little idiot away. She's amazing, and one thing I know for sure is that you need to keep on to her. She's been through too much for you to leave her, and the same goes for you. When I first joined the Skylanders, I didn't know what to think of you two. I did notice how amazingly beautiful she was, and how much she liked you. I see how deep your love is for her, and it is with that that I must say, I will do anything in my power to help you find her. She will be fine, trust me."

Spyro gave her a very tired and weak smile, and he felt the pain from his broken ribs returning. He knew it was time to take the medicine that had helped with healing them.

"Can you go get Cali for me?" he asked. "I need to take the medicine right now. It's been helping me with my ribs, and since the pain's returning, it's time for me to drink it."

Sonic Boom finally left the tent, leaving Spyro alone, which made him feel strange. He knew he'd get Cynder back, that she would be okay, and that she had only left for a short amount of time. He just knew it was true!

He saw Sonic Boom once more enter the tent, with Cali very close behind her.

"So you need to take the meds?" Cali asked. "Alright then." She made her way over to a cabinet and took out a small bottle filled with a strange-looking green liquid. "Here you go. After about two more days, your ribs should become completely healed, and you can go on searching for Cynder. Do you know what happened?"

"No, but I want to make sure that it's not something that will cause her to be in danger. If so, then I don't know what I'll do," Spyro explained to her in a very soft voice.

"Alright. Well, take it, and we'll let you sleep."

After drinking the liquid, he suddenly became drowsy and fell into a very deep sleep. Sonic Boom watched as he did so, hoping that she would be able to save Cynder, knowing what she had actually done, and the consequences that would come of her actions.