"Oh… oh dear…" Master Eon speaks with sadness. "This is even greater than my worst fears…"

"I'm sorry, Master Eon." I reply. "But it's true. Kaos has been capturing some of your Portal Masters and forcing them to serve him… by using Petrified Darkness with an upgraded machine."

"But how?" Hugo asks from the other side of the chamber. "The last time he's done something like this was back in the Cloudbreak Isles."

"Yeah, but that was with citizens and local wildlife." Spyro reminds him. "This… this is something more."

"To have their entire oath forced against them…" Madelyn murmurs. "It's horrible…"

"And creepy…" Flynn adds. "I mean, have you seen that guy's face?! Eugh!"

"We need a plan." Cali steps up. "Our only way to regain the upper hand in this fight is to infiltrate that base and destroy that device."

"But how?" I ask. "A weapon that important must be heavily guarded!"

"Yeah." Spyro realized. "We're gonna need a hundred squads to break in there, maybe a thousand!"

"Well, we've gotta do something." I respond to the dragon. "The longer that thing stays operational, the more Portal Masters are gonna switch sides!"

Suddenly, a nearby monitor flickers with static, turning everyone's attention to it. Before long, the monitor views a sinister room with control panels and some sort of laser. And then, we hear a laugh. And not just any laugh…

"HAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" A small bald figure in a cloak pops into view, having hacked the monitor's systems. He needs no introduction…

"Kaos…" my sister growls.

Okay, maybe some introduction.

"Surprised to see me?" the evil Portal Master quips. "Admit it, you did!"

"Kaos!" Master Eon booms. "What unspeakable act have you done to my apprentices?!"

"Oh, is that what this is about?" Kaos asks smugly. "Well, you see, it's quite simple. When all of this began, you located that planet called Earth and found young humans you deemed worthy to wield the power of the elements. You recruited hundreds of them. But how many did I find? NONE! All of those worthless humans have stood by your side all these years! That is… until this day."

Kaos moves aside, revealing the massive laser in all its evil glory. "Do you remember the Cloudbreak Isles?" he asked each of us with a grin. "Where I harnessed the awesome power of Petrified Darkness to make many pledge their loyalty to me?"

"Against their will." I clarify with a scowl. "You turned citizens and local wildlife into monsters."

"Not monsters, young Poser Master." He taunts me. "Minions! I evilized many of them, along with that foolish servant Glumshanks and, at the very core of Mount Cloudbreak… myself."

The Skylanders did stop you." Madelyn reminds him. "They always have… and they always will."

"Ah, ah, ah." Kaos mocks us, waggling a finger. "But this is where the real fun begins. After that stupid Brain guy defected and imprisoned me in that very same jar he was in for centuries, my plan from Cloudbreak started to come back. I remembered how I was evilized and thought…" He paused for dramatic effect. "What if I could expand on that? So, when this war first exploded into Skylands, you had no choice but to summon your faithful servants and train them." He explains, pointing at Master Eon. "You taught them how to harness the elements and command legions of Skyblunderers as well as their own stupid creations!"

"And so… BEHOLD!" Kaos gestures behind him, where two Doomlander Smashers are dragging in an injured Air Portal Master. As he comes to, the Doomlanders force him to drop to his knees. Troll technicians are manning their stations at control panels.

"M…Master Eon?" the Portal Master wheezes as he turns to the monitor. "QUIET!" one of the Smashers roar, slamming a fist into his chest. Master Eon gasps his apprentice groans in pain.

"Uh… Lord Kaos?" a voice asks from offscreen. "I'm afraid I must remind you that these new Petrified Darkness crystals are very unstable. Maybe you should stick to your Doomlanders for just a little longer?"

"SILENCE, GLUMSHANKS!" Kaos screams, annoyed by the butler's request. "I refuse to let instability get in the way of my ultimate genius! And as I've told you about thirty times, I am WORKING on getting them stable! Now fire up the evilizer!"
"Y-yes, Lord Kaos!" Glumshanks answers nervously. As we hear the sound of buttons and switches being pulled, I turn to Madelyn and Cali, who seem to have caught onto something. I nod to both of them as the laser onscreen begins to charge up with purple light.

"W-what is this?" the Portal Master yells. "What do you think you're doing, Kaos?!" As the Doomlanders shackle him to a wall with chains on his wrists, Kaos giggles. "What am I doing? I am simply making you better. With this device, you will become more powerful than ever before. You will be invincible! You will feel like you can take on all of Skylands… and that fool, Eon."

"No!" the Portal Master shouts. "I swore an oath to Master Eon! You'll never make me turn against him! You'll never convince me!"

"Convince you? HA!" Kaos laughs at him. "What's the point of that?" By now, the laser has reached its full charge. With a devious grin, Kaos points to a troll technician and shouts a word that sends a chill down my spine.

"FIRE!"

The troll nods and pulls a switch. In that same instant, the lasers blasts out a beam of purple energy that strikes the Portal Master in the chest. As he screams in agony, his eyes and mouth begin to glow with purple light. Master Eon can only watch as his student suffers. "No…"

The laser intensifies its blast, covering the screen with a bright light. After a full minute, the screen readjusts to reveal Kaos shielding his face with one arm. He lowers it as the troll technicians pop out from their stations. The Doomlanders march forward, where a dark cloud surrounds where the Portal Master once stood. Their weapons slice through the chains, and we all hear a loud thump.

"Well…" Kaos asks to the dark cloud. "Tell me… how do you feel?"

The cloud remains silent except for heavy breathing. Then it speaks, the sound full of pure evil.

"I… I feel…" The deep, malevolent voice causes me and Madelyn to stare at each other with uncertainty, and the rest of us to fill with horror. "…stronger."

"Stronger? Good." Kaos remarks. "Anything else?"

"I… I feel an urge… an urge to… to kill… to destroy… to exterminate all who… who do not follow me…"

"Uh huh. And what about the Skylanders? What do you think of them?" Now, Kaos' voice is full of pride.

"The… the Skylanders?" The dark cloud responds with more heavy breathing. "They… they are…"

"Yes? Yes?" Kaos can barely contain his excitement. The cloud drifts away, revealing a figure on his hands and knees, as if weak. Slowly, he lifts his head, revealing eyes that glow a dark purple and purple veins that lay around his eyes, with more beginning to spread across his face.

"…my enemies."

Master Eon stares at his former student in sheer horror as Kaos begins his evil laugh. The figure slowly rises to his full height as more figures, their faces covered with hoods, advance into the chamber.

"Yes! YES!" Kaos shouts in triumph. "Now, speak my name!"

The non-hooded figure stares at him before kneeling while delivering his answer. "Lord Kaos…"

"HAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Kaos turns to the screen after laughing maniacally. "Do you see now, Eon?! Your chances of winning this are numbered! Numbered, I say! Now, we are even!"

"KAOS!" Master Eon screams in anger. "YOU WILL PAY DEARLY FOR THIS! You deserve a fate worse than banishment to the Outlands!"

"Go ahead and try, old man!" Kaos taunts him as Spyro growls and unfurls his wings. The hooded figures on the screen remove their hoods, revealing more of Kaos' corrupted servants.

"Kaos!" Spyro roars in anger. "When I find you, I will enjoy singing you to a crisp!"

"You want me, dragonfly?" Kaos mocks him before making a beckoning gesture. "Come and get me! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

As he sees us, the Portal Master that was recently corrupted bares his teeth with rage as his hands glow with dark magic. Charging up his dark magic to full power, he unleashes his fury.

"RRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHH!" Purple lightning blasts from his palms and fingertips, striking the camera and making the monitor go into static. Before long, the words "NO SIGNAL" appears in runic letters on the monitor's screen.

The entire group is silent for what seems like hours as Master Eon slumps to his knees with great sadness. Spyro tries to comfort his master, but his presence isn't enough.

Cali's voice eventually breaks the silence. "Hey… earlier, Glumshanks said the Petrified Darkness crystals were unstable. Maybe if we overload them or damage them enough…"

"… the weapon will self-destruct." Madelyn finishes for her. "but we still need some sort of attack plan."

Master Eon stands, turning my attention to him. "For now, our efforts must remain focused on the front lines." He announces without turning around. "Buzz, Mags, Hugo, Cali, Flynn, and Sharpfin and the rest of the Academy's staff will do whatever they can to look into the monstrous device. When they have a plan figured out, we will put it into action."

"But, Master Eon…" I ask. "What if those corrupted Portal Masters are out on the field? Are you going to send your own apprentices to deal with them?"

"That is all. Meeting adjourned." Master Eon finishes, ignoring my question. I want to repeat myself, but I don't want to disrespect him. "Of course, Master." I say as Madelyn and I head out, with her head resting on my shoulder. Spyro follows us with his head hung low while Cali, Hugo and Flynn head toward separate exits.

Skylands has now entered some dark times with a powerful type of enemy on the battlefields. I want to ask myself if they can be truly defeated… or if they really are invincible like Kaos said they are…