Chapter Two: The Follow-Up
Rosie climbed out of bed the next morning, finding it difficult to fully wake up. Her dreams that night were rather unpleasant, involving intense heat and flying uncontrollably through the air, as well as a silhouette of several lizard-like figures roaring at her. She didn't have a clue as to what it was supposed to be, and she really didn't want to dwell on it too much. Rosie disappeared into her closet, changing out of her pajamas and into a black shirt and nice jeans.
"Are you up, Spyro?" Rosie shouted.
"Couldn't sleep," Spyro sighed. "Haven't been able to for a week."
"It had to be boring just to stare at the walls, don't you think?"
"Not really. I liked studying the drawing on the wall."
Rosie's cheeks burned in embarrassment. She crawled out of the closet, standing next to her writing desk where Spyro sat. Across from the writing desk were a series of poorly-drawn magical creatures, from fairies to dragons to werewolves. Each one had exaggerated features in various places, from large feet and tiny heads, to small wings and long tails. She could draw much better nowadays, and she hated the idea of what others might think if anyone saw these scrawls. She had half a mind to go over them in another coat of paint- yet, her parents still seemed to find them cute, and she couldn't bear to see their reactions if she ever asked to do so.
"Did you draw those?" Spyro asked. "The style is quite interesting."
"The style is trash," Rosie argued, turning on her laptop. "If you want to see my other sketches, I can at a later point."
"You make sketches?"
"Yeah, I have tons of sketchbooks in my laptop bag. I can show them to you once we head out."
Rosie got into her email, looking to see any confirmation. After dinner last night, she found Sam and Axl's email addresses and sent them each a message to meet her at the park benches by the water fountain the next day. When she was ready for bed, Axl had sent his confirmation, saying that he was actually looking forward to it. And now, Rosie discovered that Sam had sent a reply- at two in the morning, with no spaces, and several errors that made it hard to read anyway. She guessed that Sam was coming as well.
"I think we're good to go," Rosie decided, turning her laptop back off. "I'm going to finish getting ready, and then we can go."
"Ugh, I'm tired of waiting," Spyro sighed. "I'm eager to set off."
Rosie pulled a brush out of the desk drawer, fixing up her hair. She grabbed her laptop bag, setting her laptop in the main pouch with the rest of her sketchbooks. She took Spyro and set him in the front pocket of her laptop bag. She set the bag over her shoulder, and walked over to the door. Before she could open it, she heard shouting from the other side.
"I swear, it wasn't me!" Brian yelled. "It was there when I got home!"
"We've told you several times, haven't we!?" their mother shouted. "You have to clean your feet by the door before walking in! As often as you go out, you really ought to know this!"
Rosie's plan to pin her mess on Brian had worked. Now she just had to wait for the heat to come off.
Rosie made her way to the park, spotting Axl on the benches where she had asked him to be. She jogged up and sat next to him, shivering at the cold metal on her rump. Axl appeared deflated, as if something had gone wrong. He hardly acknowledged Rosie's arrival.
"Is everything okay?" Rosie asked.
"I'm fine. Just have this awful headache," Axl insisted. "I'm not feeling the best."
"Are you sure there isn't anything more to it than that?"
"Well...I tried calling Chad up this morning to ask him to go to the movies later today, and he blew off my calls. I texted him a few times as well, and he didn't respond to any of them. I think he's still mad about yesterday, thinking we were tricking him."
"So he really didn't catch on to what the rest of us saw and felt?"
"Hey, do you have that weird figure with you?"
Rosie nodded, pulling Spyro out of the front pouch and setting him on her knee.
"It doesn't look like everyone's here, yet," Spyro grumbled. "I really need to get everything out. We really don't have time to waste."
"Sam should be here any moment," Axl shrugged, looking at his phone. "Though she's been rather cryptic. When I texted her, she told me she couldn't talk and that we had to meet at these benches like you asked."
"The email she sent me looked rather strange," Rosie added. "Isn't she supposed to be articulate with computers?"
A girl walked up to them, wearing a gray sweatshirt with the hood up. She sat next to Axl, pulling the hood back slightly so they could see that she was Sam. Her face contorted itself into a worried grimace. Her sweatshirt pocket bulged from everything it carried. Were her treasures the reason for her woes?
"Sam! Finally! Now I can explain everything to you!" Spyro cheered.
Sam shushed him, bringing a finger to his mouth. "Don't talk to loudly!" she hissed. "No one can know I'm here! Whisper if you can!"
"I thought that only the three of us could hear him," Axl wondered. "Sam, why are you acting weird?"
Sam pulled the hoodie over her head. "I'm on the lam," she whimpered.
Rosie raised an eyebrow. "On the lam?" she asked. "You? On the lam?"
"As soon as those Radioshack workers look over their security feed, I'm a goner."
Axl laughed, a smile growing on his face. "Alright, Sam! Did you make off with those fancy new tablets? A big screen TV?"
Sam frowned at him in confusion. "Have you ever been to that Radioshack? I think you're mistaking it for Best Buy."
Spyro huffed. "What are you guys talking about?" he asked.
"They're two electronics stores," Rosie told him. "Wait, are you saying you went to the Radioshack on West Avenue, Sam?"
Sam nodded.
"They claimed that a meteorite damaged their store, didn't they?"
Sam pulled out three circular objects out of her pocket- matching the one that Rosie found last night. She handed one to each of them, explaining, "I've been feeling anxious ever since I went there after they reopened. It felt like there was something I needed to find there, but I could never figure out what it was. Then when I got home last night, after analyzing this device- sorry for stealing it from you, by the way- I caught on to what I was missing from there. And...in the middle of the night...when everyone was asleep...I broke into that Radioshack."
"And you found two more of these weird things?" Axl wondered.
Sam shook her head, and pulled out one more thing out of her pocket. It was another figure similar to Spyro. This was a green dragon with red markings on its legs. It wore strange blue-and-gold armor. Even its wings appeared to be made of the same kind of metals. It was frozen in a similar battle stance that Spyro was in.
Spyro seemed to recognize the new dragon. "Drobot! It's really you!" he cheered. "I thought I'd never see you again!"
"I am just as relieved," Drobot said, his voice coming out rather metallic. "I estimated the chances of our reunion to be at 5347 to 1."
"I found him in a hole, along with those two Portals of Power," Sam whispered. "And I'm sure I'm going to get in trouble for breaking in."
"It can't be that bad," Axl insisted. "You didn't actually take any merchandise."
"But they saw me take something!"
So there were more of those strange figures lurking about around town? How many of them were there? And could other classmates of theirs hear the figures and interact with the circular objects?
"Okay Spyro, the floor is yours," Rosie announced. "Tell us everything we need to know."
Spyro sucked in a breath, and quickly announced, "Drobot and I are Skylanders, which are protectors of a world called Skylands. We protect everyone there from evil magic, especially followers of The Darkness, with use of the Core of Light. At least we did, until-"
"Slow down a bit," Drobot urged him. "You're throwing out many technical terms that these young Portal Masters aren't familiar with."
"You want me to slow down!? We have to get back as soon as possible! You know that!"
"I do. But we also need to exercise patience with them. They're unfamiliar to all of this."
Spyro sighed in defeat.
"Is your home in danger?" Sam asked.
"We're afraid so," Drobot continued. "The Core of Light acts as a ward, keeping the worst of The Darkness' foul magic at bay. It was destroyed in our last battle, and in its destruction, all of the Skylanders were cast away, banished to your world. This was a contingency plan, of sorts. It ensures that Skylands' protectors are always around, and can come back when needed."
"You three are Portal Masters," Spyro added. "You are the commanders of the Skylander legions, who tell us where to go and how best to operate. It's through Portals that we can travel anywhere in Skylands in a flash. And if Portals came with us, it means we can get back and set things right."
Rosie's heart thudded in her chest. It was a lot to take in. She suddenly wasn't sure if these things were being honest with them. Suppose they were the bad guys? Suppose they wanted to lure the three of them away somehow? Ugh, she could hardly stand it.
"I don't think I'll be able to help," Sam insisted. "I'm already in big trouble with the law. I'm sure there's a law somewhere saying that preteens aren't allowed to help extraterrestrials in their affairs."
"Without you, we won't be able to return home," Drobot persisted. "We no longer have a Portal Master who can command us all."
"You don't really believe that, do you?" Spyro asked, his voice shaking this time. "Master Eon still has to be out there. He has to be."
"Given the frequency of the blast, it is highly unlikely. And given the strength of our trajectories and impacts, that seems less than likely."
Axl stood up. "Hang on. How strong were your guys' impacts?" he asked.
"The G's of our impact are difficult for me to calculate, as the experience is still...fuzzy. I estimate that our speed prior to impact was approximately 7893 miles per hour."
"That's got to leave a big impact, right?"
Rosie sat straighter. "Like...a woodland fire?" she asked. "Or a damaged Radioshack? Or interferences with technology?"
"Those individuals who are magically inclined on this world are able to determine magical influxes," Drobot continued. "Phenomena which the average human can't explain usually occur due to those influxes. The magic of Skylands reaches every world at varying degrees, including Earth. However, Earth's magic is so minimal that it is practically nonexistent. Hence why these are the forms we are stuck in."
"You mean you're living creatures?" Sam asked. "Not just these figures?"
"Precisely. Perhaps there is a bargain we could all strike. I'm sure in the weeks to come, these phenomena that you three are seeing will increase exponentially, until such time that great calamities occur all over the planet. If Skylands is at peace, then these phenomena should occur less frequently. In other words, the protection of Skylands means the aversion of disaster for Earth."
Sam shook her head. "You can't shove that onto us!" she argued. "We're kids! We shouldn't be the ones protecting the entirety of any world!"
"I wish it didn't have to be the case," Drobot sighed in lament. "But there's nothing we can do to change it. All we can say is that we're sure there are many other Portal Masters awaking to their magic on this world, who are also gearing up to take their mantles as well, so you at least won't be alone in your new endeavor."
The ground rumbled beneath them, startling the group. The rumble didn't last long, but the crowd in the park whispered confusion about it. Rosie gripped the edge of the park bench, her knuckles turning white and her heart racing in her chest. That had been an odd occurrence. What could that be?
"Was that an earthquake?" Axl gasped.
Sam kept shaking her head. "We're up north. We're not on any fault lines," she argued shakily.
"Could it be...like that strange phenomena these two have been talking about?" Rosie wondered.
Sam shot fearful daggers at her, frowning and glaring. "It's nothing like that! Nothing we have to deal with on our own!" she shouted.
Rosie looked down at Spyro, who now grumbled pensively. They were a part of this, weren't they? No matter how they looked at it or thought of it.
"We should give them the benefit of the doubt, right?" Rosie thought. "We don't really know anything about what's going on. And Spyro and Drobot haven't given us a reason not to trust them. We should see for ourselves, at the very least."
"Great! Let's get back to Skylands straight away!" Spyro shouted.
"W-wait, all five of us?" Sam muttered. "We can't exactly skip school to go to another world. The three of us aren't even acclimated to it. Not to mention the provisions we'd need, like food, water, means of defense-"
"If you earnestly want to help us out, we'll need a full team," Drobot suggested. "If you three are Portal Masters, then we should have three Skylanders accompanying us as well. Are we set in that regard?"
Axl's eyes lit up in recognition, and he shook his head. "I think I'm still missing a Skylander," he realized. "That's why I've been feeling weird."
"Do you feel a sensation somewhere?" Rosie wondered. "Like what Sam and I felt when we met Spyro and Drobot?"
"I think so. Like...near the skate park a few miles up."
"The skate park? I figured you'd go up there rather frequently."
"I used to, but I've been feeling rather anxious whenever I go near, so I haven't tried to. I wonder if the reason why is that a Skylander is nearby."
"Let's take a look."
Axl led the way, pointing out landmarks for them to follow. Sam jogged up behind Rosie, stammering, "So we're actually going to try? We're not going to talk about it more?"
