Friendship Is Crazy
"So, what'll it be? We've got cornflakes, cinnamon toast, bran muffins…"
Josh was hardly listening to what the Skylander behind the cafeteria's food counter was saying to him, the young human lost in his thoughts. His muddled, perplexed and disbelieving thoughts. He hadn't even noticed that the Undead Skylander behind the counter had a skull for a head. Ghost Roaster, on his part, straightened the staff apron he currently wore over his red and black robe, his bony hands only having three fingers each. It hadn't escaped the ghoul's notice that Josh wasn't paying attention to his words.
"Of course, if you're after something a little more exotic, we've got pickled eyeballs, ectoplasmic gruel, spider stew..."
Josh jerked back to reality at the mention of such unholy cuisine. "Huh?!" he exclaimed, not even sure if he'd heard correctly. Ghost Roaster chuckled knowingly at the look on the boy's face. Josh shook his head to try and clear it. "Sorry," he said. "I was up late last night thinking about… stuff." He decided not to bore the Skylander on cooking duty with the details of what was on his mind. Ghost Roaster smirked, assuming that Josh had been thinking about girls.
"Yes, I thought listing off a few undead culinary wonders might wake you up," the ghoul said, chuckling. "We actually only have the pickled eyeballs and ectoplasmic gruel today. We're still waiting for our spider supply to be restocked." He chuckled again as Josh visibly expressed discomfort, shivering at the notion of a cook knowingly keeping live spiders in the kitchen for any reason, let alone as ingredients. "Rest assured that we keep the undead cuisine and the, shall we say, more typical dishes carefully separated under sanitary conditions. Skylander Academy is nothing if not diverse… in every sense of the word."
Josh didn't really know what to say to that. "I'll just have the cinnamon toast, please," he said, deciding to just grab something to eat and move along. He was aware that at least three other Skylanders were waiting in line behind him, and that one of them was tapping their foot impatiently. As Ghost Roaster lined the boy's tray with toast and little packets of butter and marmalade, Josh found himself watching the foot-tapping Skylander out of the corner of his eye. He appeared to be a humanoid shark of some variety. A sand shark, perhaps. The shark man had his noticeably muscular arms folded as he waited. He didn't seem to be looking at Josh, for which the boy was thankful. The last thing Josh wanted was to have a Skylander giving him the evil eye, least of all one who looked so intimidating.
"Well, look what the desert dragged in," the familiar voice of Roller Brawl said in a jovial yet sly tone as she skated up to join the cue, the shark man turning to look at her. "Haven't seen you in a while, Terrafin. Still flaunting those muscles to every lady who crosses your vision?"
Josh's jaw dropped as Roll's sheer nerve. This guy looked like he could break her in half just by glaring at her hard enough! To the young human's surprise, however, the shark man, Terrafin, burst out laughing at Roll's taunt.
"Ha! I see you haven't changed a bit, Brawly," Terrafin said in his gruff voice, pulling Roll into a friendly headlock that looked agonisingly painful, not least because of the strained expression on Roll's face, her eyes bulging out of her head. "I also see that you've toughened up since I last saw you," the Earth Skylander said as he put his younger cohort down, patting her on the back in a somewhat rough manner. "The last time I put you in a headlock like that, they had to resuscitate you!" He laughed uproariously at that. "Good thing the undead are made to handle some of the rougher stuff."
"I never agreed to that dumb nickname, but still, good to see ya… buddy." Roll said with a smile, rubbing the back of her now aching neck, having not yet equipped her metal claws. She held out her pale fist. Terrafin grinned and fist-bumped it. Josh was still baffled by the friendship that the big-mouthed vampire and the roughneck dirt shark shared, but a part him knew that he shouldn't have been surprised. Roll was impulsive. That much had been clear from the get-go, and befriending a burly bruiser with whom she could roughhouse seemed like just the sort of reckless thing the Undead Skylander would do.
"Takes all kinds," Josh muttered knowingly, turning away from Roll, only for her to quite literally slide on over to stand next to him.
"Morning, Sneakers!" she greeted energetically, ignoring the annoyed comments of her fellow Skylanders, who weren't too happy about how the derby vampire had shamelessly jumped the queue. She then stared at him, tilting her head this way and that. "What's with the scarf?" she asked at last.
Josh reached up and clutched self-consciously at the light blue kerchief he wore around his neck, the accessory bearing a small insignia on the side, which depicted a horned viking helmet - Eon's symbol. Before he could utter a single word, Roller Brawl suddenly let out a long, loud and very over-the-top gasp, causing the easily embarrassed boy's cheeks to redden as the Undead Skylander put two and two together.
"Ooh, this is goooooooooooooooooood!" Roll cooed with a truly delirious grin on her face, her glowing eyes seeming brighter than normal. "Looks like somebody's going on a trainee mission!" she teased, ruffling the young human's blonde hair.
"C'mon, Roll, I'm nervous enough already," Josh moaned quietly, really wishing his friend - crazy as he knew it was to consider an even more crazy vampire his friend - wouldn't draw attention to him like this.
"Nervous? What've you got to be nervous about?" Roll asked, her face suddenly inches from Josh's as she stared at him intently, her shining purple eyes seeming to burn into his.
"Gee, I wonder what..." Josh muttered under his breath, causing Roll to burst out laughing.
"You are so priceless, you know that?" she asked, her mad grin persisting. "A sly wink or a bared tooth and your legs turn to jelly! It's uncanny!"
"S-So is the company I keep!" Josh managed to splutter, offering a weak chuckle after his daring retort. Roll, on her part, found herself laughing harder than ever.
"Oh, you slay me, Sneakers! You slay me!" she exclaimed, wiping a tear of mirth from her eye.
"Great. Now would you slayers grab your kill and move along so the rest of us can eat today?" the Skylander in line right behind Roller Brawl demanded, flames suddenly flaring up on top of his head. Josh cried out in startlement. The Skylander was a horse with a bright red coat and yellow eyes, his bridle and saddle made of thick steel. This armoured equestrian's mane and tail appeared to be made of flames, which seemed to be growing more intense with every passing moment. His bridle had a smoke funnel atop it, not unlike that of a steam locomotive. It gave the Fire Skylander the appearance of a unicorn, and a fierce-looking one.
"T-Trail Blazer?!" Roll cried, sounding alarmed for the first time since Josh had met her. She quickly composed herself, however, clearing her throat. "Oh, um, there," she said with what seemed to be forced calm, hurriedly snatching up a lunch tray with nothing on it in one hand and grabbing Josh by the arm with the other. "Come on, Josh, let's find a table," she hissed anxiously.
As Josh found himself being dragged away, he glanced back at Trail Blazer in time to see the equestrian roll his eyes at Roll's behaviour.
"Wow, that guy really spooked you," the boy mused once he and his cohort were seated.
Roll forced a scoff. "Hardly," she insisted. "I just... remembered that I have somewhere to be after breakfast."
It was Josh's turn to give a wild grin. "Sure, Roll. Now who's legs are turning to jelly?" he asked, playfully nudging the derby vampire in the shoulder.
"Oh, shut up," Roll declared, causing Josh to laugh. The Undead Skylander's stomach then rumbled. Josh heard it and his amusement faded to be replaced with knowing compassion.
"Wanna go halves?" he offered, gesturing to the four slices of toast stacked up before him.
Roll smiled. "Cheers," she said. On that note, the two began to tuck into their shared breakfast. Trail Blazer watched them from afar with a furrowed brow as Ghost Roaster served him his rolled oats...
The swish of a sword. The splintering of a wooden crate. Those two sounds went together like bacon and eggs. As the jagged purple blade cleaved yet another wooden box, the Imaginator that wielded the sword took a step back to admire her handiwork, a satisfied smile on her mouth, which was lined with blue lipstick.
The Imaginator was of the Knight class and the Dark Element, literally built for sword combat and shadow magic. She was dressed in a purple vest that left little to the imagination, barely covering her chest while leaving her navel exposed. Her legs were garbed with chain mail, her ankles protected by bat-themed greaves. A skull belt buckle sat directly over her lower body. She had a bipedal, humanoid build with short purple hair, red eyes, pointed elf ears with red earrings, the wings of a bat and the striped tail of a lemur. The physical trait that really stood out, however, was that of her arms.
Black, scaly appendages ending in not hands, but the heads of snakes, each of them having glittering orange eyes, the hilt of the Imaginator's sword grasped in the fangs of the right snake head.
The Imaginator turned away from the remaining crates. "How was that, Master?" she asked, addressing the Sensei who had trained her. Her face fell, however, when she saw that her 'Master' had not been paying the slightest bit of attention to her demonstration, for he was now sprawled out on the beach's golden sand, fast asleep, his mouth hanging open, tongue lolling out. The Imaginator rolled her eyes at the sight of him.
"Whoa!" The Sensei jumped up, startled by the loud thud that occurred when his pupil suddenly drove her blade into the ground right next to him. Realising what had happened, the orange-furred Sensei relaxed, stretching and yawning lazily, running a gloved hand through his brown mohawk. He straightened his blue jeans, glanced down to make sure his red sneakers didn't have untied laces and stood watching his apprentice with a lax smile, blinking his green eyes.
"Master, while I don't doubt that there is method in your madness, I believe that it is very important to be focused and vigilant when-"
Crash Bandicoot held up a hand to silence her. He turned to face the stack of crates, only a few boxes remaining. He walked over and developed a battle ready stance… or at least what he probably thought was a battle ready stance. He looked more like he was about to start dancing, and knowing Crash, that possibility wasn't too unlikely.
"Oh, you want us to practice that technique?" the Imaginator guessed, knowing her Master well. While Crash was a Brawler rather than a Knight, he had specifically chosen to work with the latter, having learned from his own mentor, Aku Aku, that a good teacher needed to be versatile. There was only so much about swords that a Knight Imaginator could learn from a Knight Sensei, and Crash wanted his Skylander apprentice to be more than just a Knight, just as he was more than just a destructive crate smasher. Probably.
Crash stretched his arms out at his sides, started to run forward and then broke into his signature spin attack, striking the nearest crate and completely shattering it into splinters. The Imaginator watched carefully, feeling a slight sense of apprehension. Her own spin attack was still a work in-progress, as Crash no doubt knew. She bit her lip as Crash stepped back to give her some room to manoeuvre, waiting for her to follow in his example.
"I'll do my best, Master," the Dark Skylander said with forced calm as she readied herself. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath in through the nose, letting it out slowly through the mouth… and then her eyes flew open, her right snake arm shooting out to the side, the serpent's fangs clamped tightly around her weapon. The Imaginator raced forward, twirling as she went, swinging her sword in a wide 360 arc, and then-
Crash's eyes lit up as his apprentice stepped back, an entire pile of shattered crates resting before her, having been decimated by her well-executed blade spin attack.
"I… I did it," she said almost in disbelief, her eyes wide. Then she grinned broadly. "Oh, yeah!" she exclaimed, thrusting her sword into the air and doing an on-the-spot jig, her hair magically catching alight with blue fire in her excitement. She then realised what she was doing and quickly composed herself, the blue flames going out. "I mean… Thank you for believing in me, Master," she said more professionally.
Crash smiled and held out his hand. The Imaginator took it in her free snake head, careful not to bite into the bandicoot's palm with the fangs.
Right then, a rather high-pitched growl rang out and three Greebles suddenly jumped out from behind the nearest Wumpa tree, each of them armed with clubs. Crash chuckled confidently, ready for the challenge.
"Let's do this, Master!" the Imaginator declared, raising her sword skyward, causing it to be struck by lightning from out of nowhere, powering it up. She then joined her Master in developing a fighting stance, her hair flaring up again as she proclaimed her Skylander battle cry: "Brace for… my ultimate awesomeness!"
Yeah, I decided to throw one of the Imaginators I made in-game to the wolves of the internet. I just really wanted an excuse to have Crash working with another Skylander that could do a spin attack.
Hope you enjoyed this chapter, and stay tuned for more.
