Ch. 2: This is too Real to be Real

A sensation of uncontrollably soaring through an infinite space of intricate colours and lights came over Tails. Then came a feeling of suddenly leaving his body behind and his consciousness suddenly entering a perfect replica of the Spyro that had come up as a hologram, except solid. At which point he went back to soaring through the glowing emptiness, in Spyro's form.

Tails carefully examined his new form, admiring the way the light glistened off his purple scales and working out how to move his new tail and wings.

Which, of course, he only had a couple of minutes to do before a singularity of unbelievably, unbearably bright light showed up and enveloped him.

"Dang, what happened?"

Tails woke up on a beach, looking up at a bright blue sky. He recognised a giant cog set in a nearby cliff face, and, when checking his body, he was still in Spyro's form, so he could only assume he had arrived in the virtuality safely. And oddly enough, his voice sounded just like Spyro's had in the game. Which, at first, was majorly disconcerting.

He then spent a few minutes working out how to walk as a quadruped. It wasn't as easy as it looked, there was an entire awkward routinely habit to get into.

Once he had done that, he decided working out how to get back to reality was of paramount importance, and when he didn't see any obvious method of doing so, he began scratching out calculations in the sand. Due to the obvious lack of a calculator, or pen and paper.

"Spyro? I thought you were on vacation?" An unseen person called out from behind Tails.

Tails quickly looked over his shoulder to see what appeared to be Zap doing his best to splash Slam Bam and Chill, which really failed because they froze the water as soon as it came at them.

"Not the time, I'm theorising on molecular virtual cross-reality physics here and I - wait, what the heck!"

Tails jumped towards Zap, flooring him on the seabed a foot or so beneath the surface. Zap winced in pain as his sensitive frills were forced flat. "Who are you, and," Tails paused in confusion. "How the heck did you get into my virtual reality?"

Zap looked bewildered. "It's me, Zap, remember? You recruited me to the Skylanders a year ago! Remember? Spyro?"

Tails rolled his eyes. "Do I look like Spyro to you?" Then he caught sight of his own purple-scaled, three-taloned claws. "Don't answer that. I'm no more the real Spyro than you are the real Zap. Don't tell me, there's a time passage difference between reality and here and it's been several years back on Earth, enough time for the government to confiscate the virtuality portal and send you, in the form of Zap, to apprehend me. And those two are your back-up," At the last sentence, Tails indicated Slam Bam and Chill.

Then he blinked, since they appeared to he having a snowball fight. "Did you get children as back-up or something? Really? Because they really aren't pulling off the entire 'threatening black-suit SAS agent' thing. They look more like those terrible secret agents from Johnny Test,"

Zap blinked in confusion, trying to work out what the heck 'Spyro' was going on about. "Dude, what's a government? And for that matter, what's a virtuality portal? Hey, wait. You watch Johnny Test too? Man, that's rad!"

Zap then registered exactly who was a mere few feet away. "Can I get some help here? Spyro's gone nuts!" Zap yelled to the other two Water Skylanders.

Working together, they encased all of Tails' body below the neck in ice. Slam Bam lifted him off Zap, and the three carried him up to the castle, answering queries from other Skylanders they met along the way about what they were doing.

Tails was dropped in a prisoner cell in the Tower of Power's (the residence of Portal Masters and home to the Portal of Power) basement, where the 'Skylander information extraction team' assembled. Which was basically just Camo and his giant meat-eating plants, Zap, Stealth Elf and Hex.

"Okay, we've radioed the real Spyro and we know he's still on vacation, but he's coming back to see this, so you can drop any pretence that you're the real Spyro," Hex told the imprisoned dragon.

"Seriously? That's what you're going with to start the interrogation? Didn't that guy in the form of Zap tell you that I wasn't even trying to pretend I was Spyro?" Tails sceptically questioned. "I don't even understand why you're all pretending you're the real Hex, Zap, Camo and Stealth Elf. And if you're the interrogations team, shouldn't you have a Giant? Tree Rex or something? Because I've played the game, and they're the really threatening ones. Heck, you should have brought Wolfgang, he's more threatening,"

"Dude, who's Wolfgang?" Zap asked, frowning.

"That's not important, Zap. So, who are you?" Hex spoke this time, emphasising the word 'you'.

"Call me Tails. Everyone does. And what's your real name?" Tails replied, scathing.

The sorceress frowned. "Er, Hex?"

"Okay, so I never even tried to pretend I was Spyro, but you're telling me you're Hex. Fine, I'll humour your twisted ideas for now. Is anyone here going to tell me their real names?" Tails asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

The Skylanders all introduced themselves.

"Dang, you're thicker than I thought," was Tails' only response.

Then came the sound of an airship docking, and a far-off "BOOM!" A minute later, the real Spyro swept in, all marvelous, and grandeur. But he kinda ruined it by comically being shocked at the sight that presented itself to him, which caused him to lose his focus, his balance, and left him sprawling on the cobblestones.

The purple dragon, after picking himself up once more, leaned forward for a closer look. "You're right, the resemblance is uncanny," he commented to Zap. "And where did you get that hat?" Spyro added.

"Well? How are you going to play this? Were they meant to be the bad cop then you show up as the good cop? Oh, and the hat was in a hidden chamber in a Tech zone in Molekin Mountain. Another one might still be there,"

"Who are you working for? The Cyclopses? The Trolls?" Spyro asked, apparently playing the bad cop after all, Tails noted.

"Please don't say Kaos," Camo added, a panicked look on his face.

"Stop playing dumb, all five of you. We all know that none of this is real, these are not our real bodies, and this is just a virtual reality I created!" Tails told them, starting to get angry.

"Didn't Drobot mention something about 'virtual reality' a while ago?" Stealth Elf asked, frowning behind her mask.

"Yeah. He did, didn't he? Go find him and bring him here. Maybe he can make sense of this guy," Spyro decided.

Stealth Elf sprinted away.

Okay, this chapter has been modified and re-uploaded! I will make an official announcement regarding the rewritten chapters once all of them have been completed, but in any case, all you new readers, enjoy this and the next one! And if you see any phoenixes, do not engage. Gaiphe's insufferable enough as it is. Peace!