Short disclaimer: All credit for story idea goes to TRikiD. I do not own any part of the Skylanders Franchise, save for the games and figures sold publically. I have borrowed the characters and locations from Skylanders for the sole purpose of telling a fanfiction story. Please read the unofficial first chapter for full disclaimers and notifications.
Fire and Ice
Several hours passed before Cadence slowly regained consciousness. Her head throbbed with a dull, yet agonizing pain. She gave her head a shake before opening her eyes. When she made an attempt to move, she found that her arms and legs were restricted by something. Cadence looked down at her sides and discovered both her wrists chained together and anchored to the wall. She shook her head again and blinked a few more times, getting her feline eyes to adjust to the dark before looking around and founding that she was imprisoned inside a dark and dank dungeon. Cadence about jumped out of her fur when the silence of the dungeon was suddenly shattered by a low rumbling sound coming from nearby. The startled Matah quickly calmed down when she located the source of the sound coming from a sleeping Flynn. The Mabu was also imprisoned in the same dungeon with her, but unlike her, he was not chained up.
"Flynn! Flynn!" Cadence whisper-shouted, but he only rolled over and kept on sleeping.
"Flynn! You stupid, idiot Mabu, you're gonna get us both killed," Cadence growled.
If they were going to escape, she needed to wake Flynn up; so she focused Undead power through her paws and summoned a screaming ectoplasmic spirit. Unable to see her paws, she failed to see the dark aura that formed around her wrists.
"Wake that idiot up, but don't let anyone else hear your scream," Cadence whispered her order the banshee.
The screaming banshee glided through and over the sleeping Mabu, then let out a sharp scream. Flynn let out a panicked scream of his own and sat straight up. He panted for a few moments before watching the screaming banshee glide silently behind Cadence and vanish. He looked at Cadence who was looking at him with a quirky and mischievous smile on her face.
"Cadence!" Flynn exclaimed and got to his feet, "what did you do that for?!" Flynn exclaimed angrily, glaring at the Matah, with his fists on his hips.
Cadence's smile vanished and was replaced with fear and worry.
"Shut up!" Cadence hissed, "get yer butt over here and unchain me."
Flynn was in no hurry to help Cadence after her extremely rude wake-up call. Instead he straightened up, crossed his arms, lifted his chin up and closed his eyes in defiance.
"Flynn, what is your problem?" Cadence hissed at him.
Flynn looked at her, turned his back on her and didn't respond to her question. At this point he started looking around at their surroundings.
"Uh, where are we?" Flynn asked.
"Judging by the atmosphere and the fact that we were taken prisoner by Evilized Greeble Iron Clads—I'd have to say we've been imprisoned in the dungeons of Kastle Kaos. Now get me out of these chains," Cadence replied.
"What do think Kaos wants with us?" Flynn asked her as he finally approached her, bent down and began picking the locks on her chains, freeing her from them. He had a worried look on his face now.
"He must have learned about my capabilities. I suspect he plans to enslave my mind somehow and force me to work for him," Cadence explained.
"Uh oh," Flynn said in a concerned tone.
"You? Probably nothing. You were just UNFORTUNATE to be near me when they moved in to capture me. They couldn't leave you behind, because you had seen them so you would have been able to alert the other Skylanders right away," Cadence hissed at him.
"No, it's not that…look at your wrists," Flynn said.
"So they got chaffed up by the cuffs, they recover," Cadence hissed at him again.
"No, Cadence look," Flynn said, pointing at her wrists.
Cadence looked down at her wrists and gasped when she saw what he was freaking out about; both wrists had thick bracelets of clear crystalline darkness wrapped tightly around them.
"Oh no, this isn't good," Cadence whimpered.
"What are those things?" Flynn asked.
"This must be the work of Kaos. Now I am certain that he knows I'm a powerful Skylander. He took extra precautions with my imprisonment. He had these put on me in case I was able to escape," Cadence said.
Flynn's face was full of worry and fear.
"What are they going to do to you?" Flynn asked with fear.
Cadence closed her eyes and used her powers to investigate the cuffs.
"Cadence," Flynn hissed at her with fear, urging her to stop.
Cadence opened her eyes and looked down at the bands, founding them to be glowing and radiating with a dark purple glow.
"They must be designed to absorb your discarded energy when you use your powers. Once they have absorbed a sufficient amount of energy, they'll evilize you. That must be how he plans to enslave you," Flynn said.
Cadence cocked an eyebrow at him, she wasn't about to admit that he was probably right.
"We gotta get you outta here and get those things off ya, NOW. There's no telling what horrible things Shorty could do with a Skylander like you on his side and I don't think I could forgive myself if I let you be evilized," Flynn said urgently.
"Oh, what do you know? Since when did you start thinking for yourself. You're just like all the other Mabu, maybe even worse," Cadence growled under her breath as she walked to the door of their dungeon and using her claws, she quickly picked the lock. She was too angry with him to admit that he was probably right.
"Why are you being so mean to me? What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Flynn questioned angrily and chased after Cadence who quickly rounded on him.
"Flynn, this is all YOUR fault," Cadence hissed at him.
"My fault?" Flynn replied with offense.
"If you hadn't acted out of jealousy towards Freeze Blade, we wouldn't be in this mess. You irritated me to the point of arguing with you. If you hadn't done THAT, I would have sensed the enemy coming and we NEVER would have been caught! Now I'm stuck with the worst person in all of Skylands to be stuck with," Cadence snapped.
She and Flynn glared into each other's eyes for what felt like a long time, before Cadence decided to let it go.
"But…" Cadence started, taking a deep breath, "I AM a hero and will keep my cool, forget about all of that and work to get us out of this mess," Cadence said and turned away from him and began looking for the pathway out.
"Hey, wait a minute, its 'forgive and forget', Cade. What happened with the forgive part?" Flynn asked in a harsh tone.
"Don't you dare start calling me Cade after what you've done and there is no way I am forgiving you for behaving like a little child and failing to follow the rules," Cadence replied with an equally harsh tone and continued on.
It stung that she forbade him from calling her Cade.
"Crazy Mabu…" Cadence mumbled angrily and with the door unlocked she headed off.
Flynn glared and rolled his eyes at her.
"Fledgling Skylanders…" Flynn growled under his breath.
"Hurry up," Cadence barked at him.
Flynn jogged to catch up to her.
"Hello! Is there someone there! AH!" called a pleading female voice through the halls then sounded as though something had hit the poor girl.
"Who was that?" Flynn questioned.
"If you aren't one of those evil characters, my friend and I sure could do with a little help. It's dreadfully damp down here," replied the voice, that was unmistakably masculine.
"It sounds like someone in trouble. We have to help them, c'mon!" Cadence remarked.
Before she could run off in the direction of the call for help, she was grabbed by her wrist and stopped.
"Whoa, Cadence, hold up," Flynn said quickly.
She quickly rounded on the Mabu grasping her wrist and glared at him.
"We can't do that. It could be a trap," Flynn said.
"Since when did you get smarter than me," Cadence hissed at him and pulled her paw away from him.
Again, she knew Flynn was probably right, but wasn't about to admit that or agree with him on anything. She and Flynn followed the voice.
"Keep talking, sir; we're here to help!" Cadence called out.
"Over this way! OW!" called the voice.
Cadence rounded a bend but stopped and jumped back behind the corner when she spotted three Fire Golems. They were guarding two drakes, wingless cousins of the dragon, a red one and a blue one. Both drakes were chained up; the blue drake had a mark on its face reminiscent of a golem's boot kicking it and the red one had a fist mark on the side of its snout. Since Flynn was following Cadence and was unaware of the Fire Golems, he started walking past her and Cadence quickly grabbed him by his scarf and pulled him back behind her before he was spotted, choking him a little in the process.
"Hey, choke me to death, why don't ya," Flynn whispered angrily at her and loosened his scarf.
" You dumb knucklehead, you almost walked straight into the path of those Fire Golems, so quit yer complaining," Cadence hissed at him.
She turned back and carefully peaked around the corner to study the situation. Flynn crossed his arms over his chest, upset that she was still being mean to him and now calling him names.
"I can't take them on, they'll see me coming and be ready to fend me off before I could even lay a single blow on them. This would be so much easier if I could use my powers," Cadence whispered firmly while just barely peeking around the bend to keep from being spotted.
"So you admit that I was right about those bracelets," Flynn asked her.
"We need to find a way to distract them," Cadence said, ignoring his remark.
"Uh-huh…" Flynn agreed sarcastically, "and how are you planning to do that withOUT using your powers?" Flynn asked in an equally sarcastic tone.
Cadence's eyes popped wide as an idea came to her the second Flynn asked that. She slowly turned towards him with an evil grin. Flynn gulped with fear.
"Cadence, don't you dare…" Flynn started to protest but before he could finish, she shoved him out from behind the corner; the three golems spotted Flynn who gasped with fear.
"AAAAHHHH!" Flynn screamed and immediately started running around the corridors, the golems fired up their rocket feet and flew after him.
"Knew you'd be good for SOMEthing," Cadence whispered with a smile on her face as she watched him running around.
With the enemy distracted, Cadence rushed towards the two drakes.
"Are you ok?" Cadence asked quickly.
She used her claws out to try and began picking the locks on the drakes' chains.
"We should be, now that you've rescued us and set us free," replied the red drake.
As Cadence quickly set his companion free, he asked, "who are you?"
"My name's Cadence; I'm a Skylander. You're a Lava and an Ice Drake" Cadence replied.
"A Skylander? What are you doing here?" remarked the Lava Drake.
"My 'friend' over there and I were captured just like you…" Cadence said as she watched Flynn run by again. "Most likely to be Evilized. We're trying to find our way out of here and back home," Cadence said.
"Well, it just so happens that I know the way out of this confounded dungeon hall. I can help you and your friend escape and get you on your way home, in exchange for helping us get back to our homes," remarked the Ice Drake, who was unmistakably female.
"What do we call you," Cadence asked.
"They call me Chester," replied the Lava Drake.
"And I am Glacie," added the Ice Drake.
"You've got yourselves a deal, but first, let me deal with these Fire Golems," Cadence said, "FLYNN GET OVER HERE," Cadence whisper yelled at Flynn when she saw him run by again.
Flynn looked in her direction and almost tripped when he turned for her. He had just managed to momentarily shake the Fire Golems.
"Don't you EVER throw me out into enemy lines like that EVER again!" Flynn angrily exclaimed while hiding behind Cadence.
"You've helped enough! Stay here with the drakes. I'll take over from here with melee attacks," Cadence shouted firmly.
"You be careful," Flynn hissed at her as she charged at the Fire Golems.
Chester, Glacie and Flynn watched her quietly, impressed by the incredible skill and agility exhibited by the strong yet small female. Flynn was really starting to see her in a way that he had never seen before. Flynn had always been impressed by and always had a crush on Cadence ever since they were kids, but seeing her now, he could feel himself growing ever more attracted to her.
Cadence quickly and effortlessly took out the Fire Golems and with a smile of satisfaction on her face, she turned towards Flynn, Glacie and Chester. Right away she noticed the lustful way Flynn stared at her. Cadence gasped with surprise, then growled with a sneer since it was really against the rules and it was neither the time nor the place for it. With another growl she stomped up to the narcissistic Mabu.
"Come on!" Cadence hissed while grabbing Flynn's scarf and choked him again to yank him out of his trance and drag him along with her.
"Alright, Cadence, alright. Let go," Flynn protested.
"Ah, young love," Chester said and Glacie chuckled quietly and followed the two.
"Alright, how do we get out of here?" Cadence asked the two drakes after eventually letting go of Flynn's scarf.
Flynn once again straightened his scarf.
"Well, hopefully their way doesn't involve such cruelty, rudeness and unfairness that you've been inflicting on me," Flynn mumbled, but with her big ears, Cadence still heard him. She again rounded on the Mabu and glared harshly at him.
"For your information that is disappointment, anger and annoyance. YOU got us into this," Cadence hissed at him.
"Can I at least point out that we wouldn't have ended up in this mess if you hadn't been such a jerk to me at the party," Flynn protested while crossing his arms.
"Me?! What about you with your interference between me and Freeze Blade?!" Cadence hissed at him.
"Oh please, as if you ACTUALLY him. He's a cat. You can't fool me, Cadence," Flynn said.
"In CASE you have forgotten, I'm a cat too. And what if I do like him? What's it you, Flynn? A relationship between us is forbidden," Cadence hissed at him.
"And have you forgotten that you are part Mabu, too. Does it really matter that much to you what I think? You clearly don't care. You're just like all the other Skylanders. Always thinking that because I'm a Mabu, I am completely helpless, cowardly and don't understand what real responsibility is! They corrupted you, Cadence. You were never like that before your training," Flynn growled at her.
The whole time they were arguing, the two drakes could only sit and listen. Flynn's last statement really surprised Cadence. Her eyes got wide and she gasped. She stared at his face for a moment before she dropped her head and sighed in defeat.
"Alright, you made a good point. Perhaps I have been a bit prejudice towards you and have never given you the benefit of the doubt," Cadence explained softly and then gestured towards the drakes, "Chester and Glacie say that they can get us out of here and on our way back home if we can help them get back to their homes. With these stupid bands on my wrists forcing me to suppress my powers, I'm going to need your help to keep them safe. Can I count on you to give me that?" Cadence said.
Flynn frowned and glanced away from her and at the ground, hesitant to respond. Cadence shook her head and let out a sigh.
"Alright, look, I'm sorry." Cadence said.
Flynn was surprised by her response and turned to look at her with an astonished expression.
"What did you just say?" Flynn questioned.
"I said I'm sorry; I admit it. I've been overreacting…to everything…and…I'm sorry," Cadence replied softly, emphasizing her last apology, "and I admit that I have missed you. I know how you feel about me, but we cannot be. Right now we need to stop dwelling on the past and work together to get us back home or else Kaos could become unstoppable and destroy all of Skylands. Are you still with me, Flynn?"
Cadence held out a paw, in hopes that the Mabu would come to his senses; luckily, Flynn smiled and shook her paw.
"You know I am with you. When this is all over, we can forget all about this and I will forget about 'us'," Flynn remarked.
"Agreed," Cadence simply stated, "alright, Glacie, which way?"
"Just follow me and keep your guard up," Glacie replied and Chester had frill of fire sprout from his back to light the way.
"So, uh, what is the story between you two? You seem to 'know' each other?" Chester asked.
"Well-OOMF!" Flynn was about to reply with a snarky grin, but Cadence suddenly elbowed him in the ribs.
"We grew up together. His mother fostered me," Cadence grumbled.
"Seems more than that. I am detecting that you two have suppressed romantic feelings for each other," Glacie said suggestively.
"It would be a forbidden romance. He's not a Skylander," Cadence said.
"Whereas she is," Flynn added.
"It's against regulations, against the rules," Cadence finished.
"What could they do? If it is true love," Chester said, looking back at them with a smile.
"Banishment from Skylands…for me," Flynn said.
…^…
Cadence walked a few steps behind the small group, looking at the back of Flynn's head, recalling a moment from her training.
"Buzz! Buzz!" Cadence called when she entered his office, looking for him.
Buzz wasn't in his office.
"He's not here, darn. I really need to get another whetstone from him so I can sharpen my sword," Cadence said.
Cadence sat down and waited for him to come back. Being a cheetah, Cadence was not a very patient person. Cadence got to her feet and walked around his desk.
"I'll just look for one. He did keep them in his desk," Cadence said and began looking through Buzz's desk.
She searched through the small drawers before opening one of the larger drawers. In the drawer, she found a large collection of letters and postcards which she pulled out. She did a double take on it and was shocked when she saw who they were addressed to herself and who they were from.
"What? All of these letters are to me from Flynn. Why didn't I receive them?" Cadence wondered.
Cadence flipped through them. There were several dozen letters.
"Cadence," remarked a curious voice.
Cadence looked up and saw Buzz standing in the doorway.
"What are you doing going through my desk?" Buzz demanded.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITHHOLDING LETTERS ADDRESSED TO ME?" Cadence demanded back.
"It's for yer own good," Buzz said, snatching up the stack away from her.
"But they're my letters," Cadence said.
"Cadence, I withheld these letter because I want you to forget about Flynn," Buzz said.
"Why? All these months, I thought he didn't care enough to write to me," Cadence said in a hurt tone.
"Cadence, a romantic relationship between a Skylander and a non-Skylander is forbidden. You and Flynn are not allowed to be together the way I KNOW you'd like to be," Buzz said.
"WHAT?! But Flynn and I had a crush on each other long before I even became a Skylander. It's not fair," Cadence said.
"I NEVER SAID IT WAS. But the rule remains. THAT is why I kept those letters from you and why I continue to keep them from you. I should have burned those letters. You MUST forget about Flynn as a candidate boyfriend and start looking for a male Skylander instead," Buzz said.
Cadence let out a sigh. She had only been at the academy for six months. The truth had hurt her a lot. She had loved Flynn so much and she felt as though he had been ripped away from her just because she was special and he wasn't.
"Hey, you okay," she heard someone ask.
She looked up to see it was Glacie. The ice drake had hung back to talk to her.
"Just thinking about my past," Cadence said.
"You know, I can tell you do like him," Glacie said.
"Even if that were true and I'm not saying that it is, it's never going to be between us. I told you…" Cadence said.
"It's against the rules," Glacie finished with Cadence.
Glacie jumped in front of Cadence and stopped her from walking any further.
"Surely there's a way around this rule? A way for the two of you to be together," Glacie said.
Cadence shook her head.
"He would never go for it," Cadence said sadly.
"HEY!" Called Flynn.
They looked at him.
"Everything alright?" Flynn asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine. We were just discussing something," Cadence said and quickly pushed her way forward.
Flynn watched her as she walked, examining her closely. He could tell she was being worn down and out. He wasn't sure if it was because of her being back in his presence, the dark bands or a combination of both, but it worried him.
I've gotta step up and do more to help her. That is…of course…if she'll listen to me, Flynn thought.
…^…^…
A short man with a light blue star mark upon his bald forehead and dressed in regal black attire paced back and forth in a large, dark throne room, a massive grin upon his face as he silently planned his next move. A lanky troll stood out of the way and watched his boss with a cocked eyebrow.
"You sure seem to be in a good mood, Lord Kaos," Glumshanks stated.
"Oh, Glumshanks, I am filled with such excitement!" Kaos replied with happiness and stopped his pacing.
"What's got you so excited?" Glumshanks asked.
"You are not going to believe this, Glumshanks. The rumors about Eon having an overpowered new Skylander that could master any and all element are true and I CAPTURED her. It's absolutely incredible. Soon, I will evilize her, turn her over to my side and THEN I WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE!" And with that he let out a maniacal evil laugh.
"Oh, you mean that Skylander imprisoned down in the dungeon?" Glumshanks asked.
"Eeyup." Kaos said with a wide grin on his face.
"Along with that bumbling Mabu pilot that flies the Skylanders everywhere," Glumshanks said.
"Eh, I have no intentions for that bungling idiot of a pilot, but at least with him out of the way, the Skylanders will be short of their pilot and it will take them even longer to stop me. With my first ever Doomlander, there will be no stopping me this time," Kaos said.
"Yeah, I hate to ruin your excitement but both the Matah and the Mabu escaped from the dungeons," Glumshanks said.
"WHAT?!" Kaos shouted.
"Along with those two Drakes you had chained up in the Dungeons too," Glumshanks said.
"How long have you known this, Glumshankes?!" Kaos asked, rounding on his troll butler.
"A few hours." Glumshanks said with a lack of expression.
"Why didn't you bother to tell me?!" Kaos asked.
Glumshanks gave him a shrug of his shoulders.
"CALL OUT ALL GUARDS! DO NOT LET THAT MATAH ESCAPE!" Kaos shouted loudly and stormed out of his throne room.
"Where are you going?" Glumshanks asked as he pursued after the outraged Dark Portal Master.
"I am not going to trust my incompetent minions with the task of re-capturing my prize prisoner. I MUST have that Skylander—so I am PERSONALLY taking MY evilizer ray gun and will see to it that she is thoroughly evilized myself!" Kaos exclaimed.
