"A retreat?" Stormblade said. "I don't think anyone's ever done that before. At least not with a group this large."

For the first time in months, Spitfire had succeeded in bringing all eighteen members of the skylanders supercharged team to the same place. Some had been easy to find, others they had to wait on as they came back from whatever they were doing. A few he had to refind after they got bored and ran off. Namely Trigger Happy and Pop Fizz. But finally he managed to get them all into the academy's library. Most of them had settled onto the couches, but he prefered to stand.

"Eon said it was a good idea," Spitfire pressed on. He looked at the faces around him, searching for support. High Volt, Jet vac, and Thrillipede were all in deep thought. They were the ones that usually thought things through a bit more carefully. Trigger Happy, on the other hand, looked as if he were ready to jump in the Gold Rusher right then and go. He was jumping up and down in his excitement. It was as if he'd eaten batteries for breakfast. Maybe he did, Spitfire had never really asked. He had absolutely no idea as to how Dive Clops felt about the retreat idea. No one could ever read him, as he was an eyeball in a diving suit. The majority of the team, however, seemed at least interested as far as he could tell. Nightfall was the only one who looked a little doubtful.

"I'm all for it!" Stormblade declared. She was tired of sitting around anyway, and the Sky Slicer could only take so much polishing. If there was a chance to do something new, she would take it.

Spitfire smiled at her, grateful for the support. Stormblade was someone he could always count on to back him up.

"I think I agree on this one," Jet vac said. "The team has been coming up a little short lately, as you said Spitfire. We could all use the extra training." The sky barron was one of oldest and most experienced skylanders on the team, so his approval raised the the others optimism.

"I agree as well," Fiesta said. "We can treat like one big supercharged party!"

"A party that involves lots of hard core training," Nightfall reminded him.

"We can have fun while training. That is the whole point, isn't it, amigo?" he asked Spitfire.

Spitfire nodded. "Yup. Training, team building, and just having fun pretty much sums it up. Hugo's found a great location in a remote area off to the west. There's a barracks and a half already built there. Apparently there's several places across Skylands with emergency hideouts. What's nice about this one is that there's a huge lake nearby, perfect for the water vehicles."

"Barracks and a half? What's that supposed to mean?" Terrafin asked.

"It means that after the original barracks was built, it was decided that it wouldn't be enough space, so they built a smaller one next to it," Spitfire explained.

" Huh, convenient," Splat said.

"So, how long is this retreat supposed to be?" Nightfall asked.

"Four weeks," Spitfire said.

"Four weeks?!"

"Four weeks aint so bad," Smash hit said. "Well, unless you meant "four weeks" like four weak members, that would be bad, and all the more reason to spend four more weeks training! I'm in!"

"Right," Spitfire said. He wasn't sure how else he was supposed to respond to that.

"Come on Nightfall, what else are you going to do in the next four weeks?" Stormblade asked her.

"Now that you mention it... the retreat does sounds pretty good."

"Glad to hear it, because you don't actually have a choice," Spitfire told her.

"Wait, than why'd you even ask in the first place?" said Stormblade.

"If you were all opposed to the idea, then I would've just candled it, but since Nightfall's the only stick-in-the-mud, were doing it." He got a very stern glare from Nightfall, a reminder that he was glad they were on the same team.

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go pack!" Pop Fizz declared. The team started to break.

"Hold on," Stealth Elf interjected. "What about Nightshade? He's still on the loose."

"That's a job for the trap team, Stealth Elf. And even so, there's still a couple hundred skylanders here at the academy ready to fight. They can handle things without us for a little while. We even have a radio station in case they need to contact us, or vice versa," Spitfire told her.

Stealth Elf knew he was right, but she still didn't like the idea of being away from the action. She often felt like the other skylanders weren't as cautious as the should be. "All right," she said. "As long as we aren't cut off from the academy."

"Now can we go?" Pop Fizz asked. He was nearly as eager as Trigger Happy.

The next morning, all the superchargers were packed, loaded, and ready to go.

"Um, Pop Fizz, did you pack your entire lab?" Astroblast asked the blue gremlin. He looked up at the bulging sack on top of the Soda Skimmer. The weight of it pressed the watercraft low in the waves, threatening to flood over. And he'd thought he'd over packed.

"No," Pop Fizz answered. "Just most of it. You never know what you might end up needing, so it's better just to bring as much as you can."

"Right. So, uh, where do you plan to put all that? I mean, it's already going to be crowded as it is," Astroblast said.

"I don't know. I guess we'll see when we get there," he answered casually.

"Alright team, let's move out!" Spitfire called to the waiting superchargers. He took the lead with his Hot Streak, heading west across the island. Seventeen vehicles followed close on his heels, whether in the air, on the ground, or through water channels.

The group progressed across the many floating island that made up skylands over the next few hours. They wove through them at high speed, only stopping once when Spitfire released he had read part of the map wrong. Occasionally the water superchargers had to split away from the group and follow a different route, but for the most part they managed to stick together.

After a while, some of the superchargers got bored and started performing tricks while still keeping up with the group. Astroblast shot through trees and high buildings at full speed. He narrowly avoided taking a chip off the old block in one attempt. Splat managed to repaint several sings with perfect accuracy as she drove along the rivers. Trigger Happy performed a wide variety of tricks, most of them involving a golden explosion. Unfortunately, Spitfire had to put an end to all the fun after Smash Hit accidentally drove the Thump Truck through a few shops. Ok, so many it wasn't entirely an accident. Wrecking havoc was just in his blood.

It was past noon when they pulled over again for Eruptor, who apparently got car sick after hours of driving.

"Leave it to Eruptor to be the only supercharger who gets car sick," Stealth Elf muttered.

"Right-o!" Smash Hit agreed. "Or would it be motorcycle sickness since, ya know, he technically drives a motorcycle, not a car?"

"Yeah, sure," Stealth Elf said.

High Volt walked over to Spitfire. "Sir, How much further until we reach our destination, sir?"

"Not much further, High Volt. We've got to go through three more islands south," he pointed to demonstrate, " And the a big leap west, and we're there."

"If you didn't read the map wrong again," Stormblade teased.

"Hey, it's not my fault Hugo's handwriting is so tiny."

"We're good!" Eruptor announced as he walked back over to the group. He climbed back onto the Burn Cycle.

It turned out that Spitfire had read the map correctly this time because they reached their destination in just under fifteen minutes. A large portion of the island was taken up by a lake, just as Hugo promised. An equally large portion was taken up by a lush forest, leaving the rest of the island pretty open. There were two buildings at the edge of the fields near the forest. One was noticeably larger than the other. a short distance from the two cabins as a training area, consisting of an arena, shed, and obstacle course yet to be set up. Closer to the forest was a small fire ring, waiting for use.

"And we're here," Spitfire said, parking the Hot streak near the two cabins. "Boys in the big barracks, girls in the small one."

"They look more like cabins than a barracks," Stormblade remarked.

"So, for the rest the evening just get settled. We can meet up again for dinner at the fire ring," Spitfire said.

Most of the skylanders started to unload their luggage from their vehicles, but Stormblade headed straight for her cabin. Unpacking could wait, she wanted to explore! From the outside, the cabin didn't look like anything special. The design was simple; a box made out of wood with a couple windows and a door. Hopefully it would be more interesting from the inside than it was from the outside. Hopefully.

Stormblade was disappointed. From where she stood at the doorway, she examined the room. This was evidently the sleeping area, as there were five beds in a row to the right, along with a window. Oddly, the window wasn't centered, but closer to the door. To the right, and this time fairly centered, were two doors. Stormblade walked over to the and opened the first one. It lead into a small square sitting area with a couple of couches and a small writing desk. At the far end of the sitting room was another door, which proved to be the bathroom.

She proceeded to the second door. This one led to as small kitchen that consisted of a fridge, pantry, small oven, microwave, and a counter with an electric mixing bowl. The drawers and cabinets contained all the other basic cooking materials, such as knives and cutting boards. She took a peek inside the fridge. They had all been informed by Hugo that the food supplies and already been taken care of by someone who had traveled by portal. She was curious to know what they had.

Inside she found what anyone would expect to find in a fridge; milk, jelly, sandwich meat, a drawer of fruit, and so on. But she also found what you wouldn't find in a typical fridge. There was a little basket filled with small dark fruit that Stormblade had never seen before. There was a note on it that said WARNING: Only Nightfall may eat. She was so gonna question the dreadwalker about that later. There was also a sort of exotic salad that she swore she could see grass in. Finally there were a few bottles of a dark red substance. The note on these said WARNING: This is NOT koolaid. Stormblade closed the fridge door and decided to tell herself that it was just koolaid.

When Stormblade reentered the sleeping area, she found Splat in the doorway carefully inspecting the plain brown walls. "Well this place is drab," the faun decided.

"No kidding, right?" Stormblade said. "I mean, it's like there wasn't any effort put into this place at all. The window isn't even centered."

"Actually, I think that's to accommodate the different element types," Splat said.

"Oh. That does make more sense." Stormblade now noticed the difference in lighting from one end of the room to the other.

There was a loud explosion from outside.

"What in the—" Stormblade was cut off as the other three girls hurried inside. Stealth Elf quickly closed the door behind her and latched it.

"Well that was close," she said.

"What? What was close? What happened?" Stormblade asked.

"I'm not entirely sure," Stealth Elf said. "But from what I could tell, there was an explosion over near the water vehicles. Pop and some of the other guys started to yell at each other, so we took it as our cue to leave. I'd rather not get dragged into another squabble, not until we're at least settled."

Arguing could be heard from outside, but it was muffled by the cabin walls.

"Five bucks betting that it was Eruptor barfing on one of Pop's potions," Roller Brawl offered.

"Your on!" Stormblade said.

Nightfall moved further into the room. "I call the end bed," she said.

"And why should you get the darkest spot?" Roller Brawl protested.

"Because I'm of the dark element," she argued.

"Undead's pretty close."

Nightfall started to say something else, but Stormblade cut in. "How about you each give a reason why you should get the dark end," she suggested. "Then Stealth Elf, Splat, and I will decide who has the better reason,"

Roller Brawl shrugged. "Sounds fair." Despite the bone helmet covering her mouth, it was obvious she was smiling at idea of competition. Unlike most undead skylanders, Roller brawl kept up a lively attitude and playful spirit. She preferred to leave the the foreboding aura and dead seriousness to skylanders like Hex and Chop Chop.

"Like I said, I'm of the dark element," Nightfall said as if that should be reason enough. "Also, I called it first."

"My skin burns in sunlight," Roller Brawl said casually. That got her some very confused looks.

"Um, we were just outside and I don't remember any burring flesh," Stormblade said.

"Yeah, I have to take this pill every morning to reverse the effects. It acts like some sort of super-powered sunscreen. Several creatures from the underworld have to take it in order to come to the surface," she explained.

"Oh. I've actually heard of that myth once, but I didn't think much of it," Stealth Elf said. "I mean, about vampires burning in sunlight, not the immunity pill."

"Unfortunately it's not a myth. Lets just say I've had a few rude awakenings when I forgot to turn my alarm on"

"Sorry, Nightfall, but I think Roller Brawl's got you beat on this one," Stormblade said. She looked at Stealth Elf, who nodded in agreement. Splat nodded absently, only half paying attention to what was going on. She was still carefully examining the room, like it was a canvass she was sizing up before painting.

"Tell you what, Nightfall, I think we can compromise," Roller Brawl said. She was pleased just to have won the competitive portion.

Nightfall watched silently as the vampire started to push the second to last bed away from the wall. She smiled inwardly as the vampire had a little difficulty doing this, as she was standing on wheels. Great for speed and agility, not so great for for brute force. Once she got the bed far enough out of the way, she turned the end of the first one so that the length of it was against the wall with the window. Seeing what she was doing, Nightfall helped Roller Brawl slide the other bed to the opposite wall so it was parallel with the first bed.

"That works," Stealth Elf said. She was glad some skylanders could settle a disagreement without someone ending up in the infirmary. She herself had taken the bed under the window, to no objections. She preferred to be as close to the outside world as possible.

"I need to go get something from the Sky Slicer," Stormblade said, leaving the cabin.

"Well, since no one cares about sticking to the original design of this place…" Splat proceeded to move her bed over to the opposite wall, positioning it so the two doors were in between her and Nightfall.

Stormblade returned with a large bundle under one arm. She pulled out two of her feather blades and threw them at the ceiling. They drove deep into the wood. She then unfolded the bundle and tied the ends of it to the blades embedded in the ceiling. Using the last bed as a springboard, Stormblade jumped into her hammock.

"Sweet." Stealth elf looked up at the bird swinging contently in her hammock.

"I know right?" Stormblade said, beaming. "I've had this thing since I first decided to explore the ends of skylands."

"We should get rid of that bed then," Splat said. "It'll open up this place up a bit."

"Ok, but leave the mattress," Stormblade said.

"Why leave the- oh." Stealth Elf looked up at the two blades that were the only things holding up the bird.

"It doesn't happen often, but occasionally the blades will, ah, lose their grip. I'd prefer a soft landing than another broken arm."

"Ouch," Roller Brawl commented.

"Can I paint this place?" Splat asked unexpectedly.

"Say what now?"

"Can I paint this place," she asked again.

"You want to paint the cabin?" Stealth Elf asked her.

"It'll only take an hour or so," she said getting excited. "This place is just so boring." Again she carefully examined the wooden walls, paying close attention to every detail.

"I don't have a problem with that," Stormblade said.

"I do have a problem with neon colors though," Nightfall spoke up. "And paint on my bed."

"I promise I'll be careful," Splat told her.

"Fine, just no bright colors on my end."

"Deal. You guys are gonna have to leave though. I can't have anyone in here while I work my magic."

"Let's go see how the boys are doing," Stealth Elf suggested.

"Trigger Happy," Spitfire was trying to keep his fiery temper in check. "Please tell me why you thought it would be a good idea to bring your firecrackers inside."

"I didn't think it be a good idea."

Spitfire rubbed his forehead in exasperation."And can you tell me why you lit them?!"

"No clue!" The gremlin burst out giggling and started jumping on one of the beds. The rest of the boys weren't having quite as much fun as he was.

Half the room was now scorched, and the other half a complete mess. Someone's open suitcase had been dumped and scattered all over the floor. One of Pop's potion ingredients has spilled, leaving a pile of green… something. They had tried to turn a couple of the beds into bunks to make some room, but it hadn't gone to well. The beds were designed so that they could be arranged into bunks, and Dive Clops had even found a set of directions in a desk in the sitting area. But now there were several collapsed beds near the doorway. Thanks to High Volt and Thrillipede, there was at least one complete bunk. They were now trying to reassemble the remaining three.

"Come on Jet Vac, why can't I have the top bunk?" Astroblast was saying. "I never get top bunk."

"Because I have seniority rights," Jet Vac told him. "And that means I get to override any dibs, as you called it, of a junior member. Besides, you can have the top of the next bunk once Thrillipede and High Volt are done."

"Nu-a," Thrillipede said. "It was hard enough building the one bunk, thank you."

"We can manage one more," High Volt said. "If it helps keep the peace." He personally enjoyed the challenge. Most tech elements enjoyed a good puzzle. Although, it was a little difficult in the crowded space.

"Fine, fine. Just one more, ok?"

"Great!" Astroblast said.

"I think I'm gonna go for a swim," Gill Grunt said. He had been closest when Trigger Happy's firecrackers went off, so he was covered in soot. He made a beeline for the door, desperate to escape the chaos.

"So how are we gonna decide who sleeps on the floor? Arm wrestle?" Terrafin asked those who were listening. While their cabin was twice the size of the girls cabin, it was still only meant to hold ten skylanders. That meant three of them had to sleep on the floor.

"I don't think that would be very fair, I mean, why should someone get a bed just because they're stronger than someone else? And what if someone were to have a broken arm, or no arms at all?"

"Why are you complaining Smash Hit? You'd probably win!" Terrafin said. He looked at the warsupial's strong chest and arm muscles. He had been tossing his wrecking ball around for most of his life, so he probably wouldn't have any trouble tossing a few skylanders around.

"Yeah, and everyone here has arms," Pop Fizz pointed out. He was carrying an armload of flasks and jars into the sitting area. "And last I checked, which isn't saying much, there haven't been any broken bones lately."

"I technically don't have any arms," Dive Clops reminded them.

Before anyone could argue further, there was a knock at the door.

Fiesta was the first one to the door, much to Trigger Happy's disappointment. "Well hello amigos, how nice of you to drop by. What can we do for you?"

From outside Stealth Elf said, "We were just coming by to see how you all were….." She trailed off as the door was opened a bit further.

"Woah," Roller Brawl said, skating in. "It's like one of Trigg's fireworks went off in here or something."

"That's exactly what happened," Spitfire said. "Where's Splat and Nightfall gone off to?" He liked to keep a mental check of where everyone was at.

"Nightfall wanted to check out the training field," Stormblade said. She walked in and sat down on the closet bed. "Splat's having a little fun in our cabin. So what was that explosion we heard?"

"Oh, um, that was my fault," said Eruptor, a little embarrassed. "See, I was helping Pop unload because he had such a huge amount of stuff, and well, turns out I wasn't completely over my road sickness." He looked down at the floor in shame.

"Called it!" Roller Brawl said triumphantly.

"That was the last of my powdered manx claw too!" Pop Fizz shouted from the sitting room.

"I said I was sorry!" Eruptor shouted back. He was getting a little heated. "It was an accident!"

"You know what?" Stealth Elf said. "It appears you've got everything under control here." She grabbed her roommates by the wrists and pulled them back outside. "Were gonna go catch up with Nightfall." The door closed behind them.

"Ok, so back to the task at hand," Terrafin clapped his hands together. "Sleeping arrangement."

"We could rotate who sleeps on the floor," Jet Vac suggested.

"NO!" was the immediate answer from several of the skylanders.

"Pop, you can't use the entire sitting room as your lab," Spitfire said.

"Where else can I put all this?"

"You didn't think of that beforehand?"

"No, not really."

Spitfire sighed. "We can build you a shack when we build the tracks, alright? Until then, only unpack the essential ingredients."

"Good plan! Just, eh, one problem."

"What?"

"They're all essential ingredients," he said, waving to the piles of jars on the couches.

Spitfire groaned.

It took a while, but all the supercharges finally managed to meet up again as the sun was going down.

Thanks to High Volt volunteering, everyone voting on Terrafin because he was being annoying about it, and the girl's spare bed, the boys finally figured out their sleeping arrangement.

Gill Grunt had returned from his swim, now soot-free. He'd had some difficulty trying to get it out from behind his ear fins, but all was well in the end.

Splat had finished her work in an hour as promised, but the others had yet to see it. They had all got caught up messing around in the training fields.

Now they were gathered once more around a blazing fire. The smell of roasting hot dogs and marshmallows wafted across the entire island. The sky itself had turned into a blazing inferno as the sun's last rays scattered across the horizon.

"Alright, who's got a good campfire story?" Astroblast asked. He leaned back against his tree, enjoying the calm evening.

"Do you mean like a scary story, or just any old story," Jet Vac asked him. Astroblast shrugged in response.

"Ooh, we could have a story competition," Splat suggested. "We'll recount the scariest moment of our lives before becoming a skylander! Whoever has the scariest story wins. Judges can't participate."

"I think I like where this is heading," Jet Vac said. He sat up straighter on his stump.

"Who'll be the judges?" Gill Grunt asked.

Nightfall raised her hand. "I'll judge." She didn't particularly feel like telling everyone what scared her.

"Me too," High Volt said

"And I'll make three," Spitfire said. "Who's up first?"

"My idea, I go first" Splat said. She sprinted closer to the fire. "As you all know, I grew up in the most boring place in all of skylands."

"I could argue with that," Nightfall said.

"New rule, no interrupting until whoever's telling the story has finished." Splat smiled mischievously at Nightfall. "Or you may find some extra 'color' to your bed."

Nightfall stopped talking.

"So, like I said, I grew up in the most boring place in all of skylands. In case you haven't figured it out yet, boredom does not suit me very well. So rather than accept my life as it was, I constantly snuck off and picked fights with chompies and other nuisances. I got away with it for years. But then one day my best friend decided she just had to know what I did everyday after school. She wouldn't leave me alone about it, but I couldn't tell her because she practically breathed the laws of our tribe. We ended up getting in a huge fight. Next day, I went out like I always did. I wasn't over the fight, so I was taking my anger out on a few chompies, fighting more aggressively than I usually did. She had followed me, and she watched everything I did. It wasn't until I had killed the last chompie that I saw her standing there. Before I could try to explain or reason with her, she ran off to tell the elders everything. By the time I made it back to the tribe, it was too late. I was immediately brought before the elders. I had never been so terrified as when all twenty elders, who had all seemed nice and understanding before, glared down at me with fury. The ranted on about how I, with my violent actions, threatened the very foundation of the tribe. The said it would destroy everything that they had worked to build. That I would bring about misery to all fauns. What was even wors was that my own grandfather was one of the elders, and he was more furious than any of the others. They had sent me to a separate room to discuss my fate when the drow attacked. And than things just worked out from there." Splat clapped her hands together. "On that happy note, who's next?"

"Hold up, I've got a question," Gill Grunt said. "About that friend you mentioned."

"Lily," Splat said.

"Right. So what happened to her? Did you ever make up?"

Splat pawed at the ground with one hoof. "I haven't really seen her since then."

He nodded, understanding.

"I think I'd like to go," Dive Clops spoke up. Everyone turned to listen. "For me, the scariest moment of my life was after I got hit by the cannon that knocked my wings off. I spent days rolling around in the darkest parts of the ocean. There were no colorful reefs or friendly dolphins where I fell. I saw the darkest most vile things that lurk in the watery depths. I had no means of protection, only the hope that I looked like a rock to most of them." He gave a slight bow to let them know he had finished.

"So who's in the lead, Spitfire?" Splat asked, hoping that she hadn't already been topped. She didn't expect to win, but she certainly didn't want to go down in last place.

"Not sure yet, let's hear some more stories first."

"How about you Thrill?" Terrafin asked. "You ought to have some good stories with your military background and all."

"Well, now that you mention it…"

Big. Mistake. Fifteen minutes later…

"... then Buzz and I ran away as fast as we could. We barely escaped with our lives."

There was a momentary silence as everyone tried figure out what the 'scariest moment' was. He hadn't been too clear. "Intense," Terrafin finally said. The truth was he'd only been able to follow half of what Thrillipede had said.

"Any volunteers to go next?" Spitfire asked the group.

"Sure, I'll go," Roller Brawl said. "The number one scariest moment of my life, without a doubt, was when when Kaos declared his 'true love' to me and asked if I would join him on an endless quest of evil."

"What did you tell him?" Stormblade prompted.

"I didn't say anything. My brothers on the other hand had a few-"

"How does this qualify as scary?" Terrafin interjected.

"Yeah," Astroblast agreed. "Creepy, sure, but not really scary."

"You wouldn't be scared if Kaos randomly walked up to you and basically ask you to marry him?"

"Well...," he said, weighing the options. "I still think it's a little more in the creepy category than the scary category."

"Whatever," Roller Brawl said, rolling her eyes at him. "If that's not scary enough for you, there was this one time that I ran into Wolfgang when I was four."

"That, I'd like to hear," Terrafin said. A few others sat up straighter.

"To be honest, I don't actually remember it all that well," she said. "The only reason I do remember it is probably because of the two hour lecture about talking to strangers I got afterwards." She was met with disappointment.

"We should probably all head to bed anyway," Spitfire said, checking the time. It's getting late, and I want you all awake enough for battle training tomorrow."

"Aw, come on," Stormblade complained. "I haven't gotten a turn yet."

"No more stories tonight, or we'll all be here till morning."

"So who won?" Splat asked.

"Um…" Spitfire had completely forgotten about being a judge. He looked over at Nightfall, who was supposed to help him. She just shrugged, to tired to really care. He looked over at High Volt, but he had fallen asleep against a tree. "Since not everyone has gotten a chance to go yet, well continue another night," he said.

There were a few mumbles and complaints (and a few snores), but everyone agreed to go to bed.

"Since we drove for most of the day today," Spitfire informed them, "we'll be doing battle training tomorrow. Maybe we can play a game."

With the prospect of playing a battle game tomorrow, the skylanders more willingly headed for their cabins.

I forgot to mention earlier that I will only update on Mondays and Tuesdays, just to simplify things. If I don't update one week, I won't until the next Monday.

Tell me if you'd like the stories (as separate projects) of Splat making up with her friend and Roller Brawl running into Wolfgang at age four. I'll probably do them both eventually. Feel free to vote on who should win the scariest story competition.

Icepelt2000: Thanks for the support. And yes, I know, I'm a horrible speller. Runs in the family.

The next chapter will be: Capture the Team