Sorry I was gone so long. End of the school year and all that.

This is the big quarter chapter. My story has twenty five chapters up to this point. This chapter is...nothing that special, to be honest. It actually takes place a few chapters before the big story I was working with for the Giants.

And this isn't the end. I believe I'll be working on this story for a long while to come.

Chapter Twenty-Five: Being Human

Security Unit 564 roamed down the corridors of the mine, back and forth, day after day. The Mabu slaves chipped away at the stone, digging for minerals that could be used to make metals for robot manufacturing. A few of the slaves tried to sneak away- the security droid shot a warning laser from its eyes toward them, just above their heads, getting them back to work. One Mabu collapsed from exhaustion- the security droid picked him up and set him on the pulley back to the surface. It cared not what happened to him. He had a job to do.

The security droid felt something kick its wheel. It looked down, finding that another one of the Mabu had left his post. Insubordination was against the rules. Didn't these tiny creatures realize that the security droid was capable of hurting them far worse than what the King would do to them?

"Get back in line," the droid said. "Failure to cooperate will result in immediate extermination."

"What happened to the Bouncer we used to know?" the Mabu cried. "You used to be a hero! Now you're really lame! You're lame and evil!"

"Failure to cooperate will result in immediate extermination."

"Don't you remember Roboto Ball? Yeah, you were the champion. You dunked the Roboto Ball away from Gordo Rocket in last year's tournament. And it was you who saved our lives when one of the balls exploded mid-air."

"Just get back in line!" another Mabu begged him. "He doesn't remember. I think they wiped his memory."

The Mabu was adamant, and continued, "You're our hometown hero. You even helped get a few of us out when the Arkeyans destroyed our home. I know you're still in there, Bouncer. Nobody can eliminate a bright heart like yours!"

The security droid prepared to fire its lasers once more, but the things that the Mabu had said triggered something inside of it. "Roboto Ball?" "Bouncer?" It had heard of those things. But Roboto Ball was an illegal sport- a dead sport, now that absolutely no one played it. And the droid was familiar with an Arkeyan named Bouncer, but he had died in the village where that Mabu had lived.

Right?

"They wiped your memories," the Mabu persisted. "But I know you still have them. C'mon Bouncer, think deep!"

It was. It had found information lost in its main core. Memories. It saw itself on some kind of field, playing with one of the aforementioned Roboto Balls. Match after match it went, beating several opponents to the kick. The Gordo Rocket Arkeyan was among these memories, and the security droid defeated him in the game.

"Yes?" the Mabu whimpered.

Of course.

"What...what am I...?" the robot stammered.

"Yes!" the Mabu gasped with delight.

He was Bouncer!

"What have I done!?" Bouncer cried.

"Oh my gosh, Norticus, you did it!" a Mabu at the top of the mines cheered, leading in the cheering of the slaves.

"...I'm a monster...," Bouncer stammered, thinking of all the atrocities he'd commited while he was down here. How could he just forget all of his memories? How had the Arkeyan generals done this? He tried searching his memory database, but that memory was completely gone. There was nothing on that. Bouncer could've lost all of this. He could've lost himself.

"It's not too late," Norticus insisted. "You're back now. You have a chance to save us. All of us."

Bouncer would make sure he would. He would make sure nothing like this happened ever again.


"Skylanders!"

The shout roused Bouncer from his slumber. He had hidden on an island that contained a rock quarry, with his new friend Tree Rex having taken watch. How long ago had it been since Bouncer had freed the slaves? A month or two, at least. He was still in hiding, having defected from the Arkeyans with the return of his old memories. The robot was worried that Tree Rex would get in trouble if the Arkeyans found them, but he was thankful to have company.

"What kind of jibberish are you spouting off, now?" Bouncer grumbled tiredly.

"I was just thinking of names for our little group," Tree Rex explained. "You know, like gang names. Something we can tell the Arkeyans when we destroy their factories and armies."

"To stick it to them?"

Nod.

"Tree Rex, I think right now is not the time to bring attention to ourselves. We don't need a name. That will just tell the Arkeyans who to look for."

"But the people need someone to look up to. They need to know that they're not alone in this situation, that someone's going to help them."

"All I'm saying is that we should wait. I told you I was on the run. If the Arkeyans heard of the two of us attacking them together, they might destroy me, and you would get in trouble for associating with me. I don't want that to happen to you. Just wait for now."

"How long?"

"I don't know. Maybe when I feel like I'm not being hunted down."

Tree Rex nodded, slumping his shoulders in disappointment.

"Speaking of being on the run, we should keep going."

"The sun hasn't risen, yet."

"I don't care."

Bouncer led the way, heading out into the quarry. Tree Rex followed close behind, much like a duckling would follow his mother. It was funny. On the first day they met, Tree Rex had wanted to destroy Bouncer. The robot didn't blame him- the tree seemed new to this world, and only recognized that all Arkeyans were evil. At this time now, Tree Rex sought companionship and comfort in Bouncer.

"It is a good name, thought, right?" Tree Rex continued.

"What, 'Skylanders'?" Bouncer replied. "Yeah. Rolls of the tongue. What does it mean?"

Shrug.

Of course. The cave-tree still had no idea that names could mean things. Heck, Bouncer wasn't so sure that Tree Rex fully understood what names were. Sometimes the robot would call him over to do something, and it would take him a minute to register it- like he would think, "Oh right, that's my name!" Bouncer had figured out almost immediately how young Tree Rex really had to be, though sometimes he forgot that it was him teaching the cave-tree all of these facts of life.

They walked through the quarry, swerving past the towers of rocks stacked onto one another. As the sun rose, they discovered a grassy island just below the island that the quarry was on. A factory was seen here, patrolled by tiny Arkeyan soldiers. While Bouncer didn't see any Autogyros that could be used for getting up here, he could understand that they'd be nearby- with all the minerals in the quarry, why else would the Arkeyans build a factory down there?

"Perfect! They don't expect us!" Tree Rex whispered, beaming. "I'm going down there."

"Wait!" Bouncer warned him, grabbing his shoulder. It was then that Bouncer saw the robots carry something out of the factory. It was some kind of flying vessel, the top open to the sky, with some sparkly purple substance seen inside. The only material with the same kind of sparkle that he recognized was Radiance Crystal- but this stuff was in liquid form.

"Okay, you aim straight for the factory," Bouncer told Tree Rex. "I'll try to take out their transport ships."

Tree Rex nodded, leaping off the island, his fist held up for attack. Bouncer followed suit, aiming for the ships. He landed wheel-first on the ground, with a thud! and aimed his finger-guns at the robots. Down they went, missile after missile. He saw the factory fall apart, flattened by the force of the cave-tree's landing. At first, Tree Rex couldn't be seen beneath the rubble, so Bouncer kept to his own work of destroying the transport ships and making sure the robots didn't recover them. Then, in another instant, Tree Rex emerged, screaming in pain, covered in the purple substance that allowed mushrooms to grow on his limbs.

That symptom was familiar, almost like his former superiors torturing captives.

"Tree Rex!" Bouncer gasped, running to his friend's aid. It was a curse attacking Tree Rex. It had to be. But he'd never seen anything like it.

Someone else beat Bouncer to the punch. Seemingly out of nowhere, another Giant came forth to attack the factory. It had a black-armored body with brass highlights strewn about, particularly on the knuckles, with a giant winged eyeball sitting where the head should be. The two of them detached, with the eyeball coming to Tree Rex's aid by shooting the fungi off him, while the headless body attacked the rest of the factory and sent the robots scrambling. Bouncer paused in his path to Tree Rex, deciding to destroy the rest of the transport ships- though leaving one still standing, for observation's sake. The Arkeyans weren't going to go after it this time- it was far too dangerous.

With the rest of the Arkeyans fleeing, Bouncer decided to see if Tree Rex needed any more help. The flying eyeball saw him racing toward them, and shot a laser at him. The robot was chased off, trying to avoid the lasers sent his way. The eyeball attacked him relentlessly, wishing to see this robot die with the rest of them. The headless giant ran in between the two, hands held up to defend Bouncer.

"Get out of the way, Headless," the eyeball growled. "He's one of them."

"But he's not one of them!" Tree Rex begged the eyeball. "He's my friend!"

Everyone turned toward Tree Rex. The cave-tree staggered on his feet. While mushrooms couldn't be seen, he was still in considerable pain. Bouncer snuck away from the flying eyeball and headless giant, helping Tree Rex up and supporting him. They eyeball didn't poise himself to attack again.

"I'm so sorry, Tree Rex," Bouncer sighed with guilt. "I should've known what was in there."

"What is that stuff?" Tree Rex gasped.

"I'm not sure."

"Then you shouldn't have known. Don't beat yourself up."

The eyeball sat back in the missing spot on the headless giant's shoulders. "It's called Radiance," the eyeball began. "You collect it from the crystals of their namesake. Grind up the crystals, and you get a kind of potion that has multiple uses. You haven't heard of it, Arkeyan?"

Bouncer shook his head. Why, he'd never heard of simple Radiance before. Right? Unless that was something that the Arkeyans had eliminated from his databanks in order to make him complient.

"And you're the tree man's friend? Maybe I can trust you."

"My name is Bouncer," the robot replied. "This is my friend Tree Rex."

"I'm Eye-Brawl. The Giant I'm sitting on right now is referred to as Headless. We've been traveling together for a while, observing the Arkeyans and seeing how we can put a stop to their evil. It looks like now was the perfect opportunity to come out of hiding. You want to stop them, too?"

Nod.

"Then forgive me for attacking you?"

"Oh, it's fine. It's not like you have any reason to think I'm on your side."

"Your friend will need some time to recuperate. You can take him to a shelter that Headless and I made which is not too terribly far from here. Let that be a start to me making things up to you."


Bouncer and Eye-Brawl supported Tree Rex as they walked. The flying eyeball pointed them in the direction of an abandoned village. Many of the houses were falling apart. The soil in the ground was mostly dead, dust kicked up into the air where they walked. Only one building stood intact, and that was the abandoned church large enough to house the three of them.

"Where is everybody?" Tree Rex panted.

"I wouldn't know," Eye-Brawl sighed. "It was like this when I came here. My guess is that the Arkeyans cleared everybody out, shipped them off to work in mines or build temples."

It broke Bouncer's heart to think that all of the old inhabitants of this village had died because of the Arkeyans. At least, he thought he still had a heart. Some kind of thing to tell him right from wrong. Unless the Arkeyans had taken that out when turning him into one of their mindless drones. Whatever it was, something inside him definitely ached.

They walked Tree Rex into the church. The building's interior had definitely seen better days. It was dusty in here as well, with much of the old furniture broken. The stained-glass windows, depicting strange creatures creating Skylands' Elements, lit the interior in a kaleidoscope of hues, with a clear window at the top pointing to a basin of water. There wasn't an upper level, meaning that the church's purpose was to contain the entire population of the village for one sermon once or twice a week.

"There we go," Eye-Brawl said, him and Bouncer easing Tree Rex on the ground. "Take it easy. You'll be fine. The only danger from a life curse would be if there were any mushrooms left to sap your energy, but I got them all off. It'll take a while for you to regain your strength after something like this, so just relax."

"But what if the Arkeyans come back?" Tree Rex asked.

"They won't. We got rid of them all."

"You know, Bouncer left one of those Radiance ships intact after our fight."

Bouncer stepped away from the two of them. "I wanted a better reading on it," he insisted. "Besides, if somehow the Arkeyans did hear about what we did, they'll see it as a waste of time to retrieve one transport ship of Radiance."

That wasn't to say they Arkeyans wouldn't be able to hear of what the three of them had done. Maybe. Did Bouncer have a tracking device installed inside him? Was there one inside him because his superiors needed to track his activity inside the mines? How far would they chase him down in that case?

"What if another village ends up like this one while we're here?" Tree Rex pouted.

"We'll deal with it later," Bouncer promised him. "Heroes need a break, too."

No comment.

"You must've been up for a while when I was asleep in the night. Try to get some sleep while we're here. It'll help you recover."

"...Alright..."

Bouncer left him to give him some space, traveling farther into the church. He observed the windows, noting the story that the shapes on the windows seemed to be telling. There was a similar church like this in his hometown, with similar stained-glass windows. The people said it was for the "Ancients", whoever they were supposed to be. The pictures of them didn't even have a clear image of who these creation creatures were supposed to be.

"Do robots not have a faith to follow?" Eye-Brawl asked him, walking toward one of the pews.

Bouncer didn't think so. Even that long ago, those pictures in the window never resonated inside himself.

A crashing sound was heard with the collapsing of weary wood. Bouncer looked back at the pews, alarmed. Eye-Brawl had tried taking a seat in one of them whilst inside Headless. Tree Rex hadn't been alerted to the commotion- he'd fallen fast asleep. The eyeball and headless giant seemed no worse for wear.

"Right, that's the broken pew," Eye-Brawl muttered to himself. "The...fourth, broken pew."

Bouncer burst out laughing at this. "Man, you look so silly in that position!" he chortled. "You alright?"

"Just fine. My butt is just bruised."

"Your...butt?"

"It's hard to explain. Headless and I have some kind of connection. When we're together like this, I feel what he feels, and I can tell him to move how I want him to. Which means if he's hurt, I'm hurt."

"Headless is like your travel buddy, huh?"

Eye-Brawl looked up at him in surprise. "Why, yes he is."

"That's what Tree Rex is like for me. When we first met, he did the same thing you did and attacked me. After that whole mixup, we started traveling together. He's the one that decides what we should do, but he always follows my lead. Tree Rex is quite young, though he doesn't look the part."

Eye-Brawl stood up, rubbing his sore rump. "You don't know where he's from?"

"No, and he hasn't told me yet."

"Can I ask about you?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Well...you're an Arkeyan, but you're not one of those life-hating monsters we know and despise. What do you know about the Arkeyans? Why did you decide to fight against them?"

Bouncer searched his memory banks for answers- he found none. He never found any answers, none that would tell him how to hurt the Arkeyans, and none about what had happened to him. "I was just a security drone," he shrugged. "Bottom of the totem pole. They don't tell security drones anything other than how to keep the slaves in line. I got fed up with doing their dirty work until I got the courage to free the slaves I was looking after and defected completely."

"Yes, but why did you decide this?"

Bouncer was speechless. He didn't know. He'd just always had this compassion. Always had a feeling that he was more human than machine. He couldn't explain it. A shrug was all he gave Eye-Brawl.

"Okay. Sorry for my insistence. I'm just so curious about you."

"As I am about you. My turn- so how do you eat? Because I'm assuming you eat? How do you talk? Where do your lasers come from? How is it that...?"


Sometime in the night, Bouncer left the church to track down the Radiance ship. Eye-Brawl had taken up watch, so the robot had no fear of any harm coming to Tree Rex. Bouncer continued through the decrepit village, his eyes having lit up to see in the darkness. It was impossibly dark around these parts, and one misstep could lead to a fall off the island.

But he failed to see something sneak up on him. Bouncer heard some kind of beeping sound, and before he knew it, he was being attacked by a robot- an Arkeyan Jouster. A metal pike slammed into his side, denting his shoulder. He turned around to face the attacker, seeing his coppery color. Bouncer shot laserbeams from his eyes, taking the Jouster off his feet. He shot a bullet from his finger toward the Jouster's head, disabling it.

He felt remorse for this drone. Bouncer felt remorse for him, even though he could be nothing more than a lifeless, obedient husk.

Much like Bouncer himself...right? Was that right?

The beeping noise didn't stop when the Jouster was disabled. Heck, now the noise seemed to fill the dead village. Bouncer moved away from the robot, fearful as to what the beeping could mean. The sound became slower the farther he moved away. Bouncer moved back toward the robot, and the sound sped up once more. He opened a control panel on the robot's chest, horrified at what he found. Some kind of hi-tech map lay in there, a red dot lighting up at Bouncer's location.

His worst fear had been realized.

There was a tracking device in him.

The Arkeyans had sent foot soldiers to hunt him down, and now they had found him.

How many had arrived? How much time did Bouncer have to make his escape unknown? Oh gosh, what if they found Tree Rex and Eye-Brawl?! What was Bouncer supposed to do, then?

Bouncer raced back to the church. He saw no signs that the Arkeyans had snuck out here. And inside the church, everyone was safe. Now Tree Rex was on watch while Eye-Brawl slept, sitting against the entrance. The tree man was looking much better than before, of which Bouncer was glad. How long would he remain that way if the Arkeyans were coming back out here to capture their defector?

"Hey Bouncer, glad you're back!" Tree Rex beamed. "Eye-Brawl told me you wanted to find that Radiance ship. Did you find it?"

"No, it's too dark," Bouncer explained, walking into the church.

No, they couldn't stay together anymore. It was far too dangerous. Anyone near Bouncer would get hurt as part of the Arkeyans' collateral. The most Bouncer could do for his new friends was to...buy them time for their escape.

Bouncer hid at the back of the church for a while, trying to decide what to do as fear took over his mind. Tree Rex hadn't come after him, so the robot could have a quiet conversation with Eye-Brawl about what his plan was- if the flying eyeball were awake, that was. He didn't have the heart to wake him. Bouncer took a broken wood plank and carved out a message, detailing his reasons for leaving, and set it near the slumbering giant.

"Is everything okay?" Tree Rex asked.

So his state of being really hadn't escaped his friend's worried gaze. Bouncer moved past the tree man, keeping away from him. He made it out of the church, pausing to figure out his plan from there.

"What's wrong?" Tree Rex persisted. "Are there more Arkeyans coming after us?"

Bouncer couldn't say that. It would send Tree Rex into a panic, trying to figure out a plan to take them on. Bouncer couldn't say that and add that he was going out to die so the tree man could escape with Eye-Brawl. Tree Rex would fight and insist that he didn't have to go it alone. The robot wanted nothing more than to keep his friend safe, to make sure he survived to save Skylands.

"Just trying to keep away from your foul air," Bouncer found himself saying.

Tree Rex looked at him, confused. "My...foul air?" he stammered.

"Yeah, you're just dead weight," Bouncer lied as he continued. "There's so much I could get done if I didn't have you to drag around all the time."

"You're just joking around...right?"

"But I guess you have some use as a body to throw at the enemy."

"...You said we'd have each other to lean on."

He had said that. But it didn't matter anymore. "It's so tiring and frustrating to have the equivelant of a child to lead around and carefully explain things to. I'm sick of having to always explain facts to you over and over again."

"This doesn't sound like you."

"Oh yeah? And how would you know what I sound like? How would you know what I want? The person you're hearing right now is me, and I'm sick of always having to be nice around you."

Tree Rex became angry. "You really are one of them, aren't you?" he yelled. "You can just go! I don't need a loyal Arkeyan to follow and hate me!"

Bouncer did, fleeing as fast as he could. He didn't know what had come over him. He wasn't sure where all those lies came from. But if Tree Rex remembered that he hated him, it would be easier to hear that he was dying so they could get away.


Hey Eye-Brawl

I'm not sure if you trust me. Yeah, we've only known each other for a few hours. If you don't trust me, that's fine. You have no reason to, especially after everything my people have done. But I'm nothing like them, okay? I hate them, actually.

I guess I hate myself, too.

I enjoyed a simple life playing Robotoball at my home village. When the Arkeyans took over, they captured me and turned me into a security drone. My memories of my old life were wiped- I'm not sure how they returned. Heck, some parts are still missing, like how they wiped my memories and sent me into the mines. I think I might have a tracking device inside me, in order to track my movements in the mines, but I don't know where it is and I'm terrified by that fact.

And everything else from my own enslavement terrifies me, too. What if they still have control over me? What if they cause me to turn on the people I've started helping? I used to think that I was human, like everyone else in my village. But the fact that I was manipulated this way, just like a machine, showed me that I'm not human. And as much as I think, and wish, and yearn, and plead, and beg to be human, I know that it'll never happen for me.

I never had the time to teach Tree Rex everything he needed to know. We were always running. I was always afraid that he'd get hurt because of me. I don't know if you trust me, but I trust you after having spent so little time with you. I want you to take care of Tree Rex for me. Keep him safe. As soon as you're done reading this message, I want you to take Tree Rex and run the other way, off this island and somewhere else. Gather other Giants to become the Skylander group he had in mind to protect the innocent. I'm not worried for you- if you guys are together, I know you'll be safe.

So don't worry for me, either. It'll be over soon.

From Bouncer. (But you knew that.)


Everything in his body ached. Bouncer felt terrible for lying to Tree Rex like that. But it had to be done. He and Eye-Brawl were safer without him there.

Bouncer made it back to the edge of the island where the Radiance ship was.A few Arkeyan drones had arrived- probably with the Jouster he'd taken out- and were observing the Radiance ship. Bouncer fired his lasers on them, chasing them off the island and securing the ship. He looked at the horizon, noticing tiny specks in the distance. The Arkeyans were sending a whole armada to apprehend him. They were still a long ways off- hopefully Tree Rex and Eye-Brawl would be gone by then. Bouncer tipped the Radiance ship, spilling its contents out. There was no reason to let them have any of it.

Perhaps the Arkeyans didn't want to kill Bouncer right away, but instead wanted to torture him? Get information out of him? Tree Rex and Eye-Brawl wouldn't be safe, then. Bouncer looked at the Radiance puddle he'd created, the purple stuff sparkling in the early morning sun. Would this kill him? How long would it take?

Bouncer touched his wheel to the puddle, trying to make sure of his next move.

Immediately his head pulsed with an excruciating pain. Bouncer cried out, stepping away from the puddle, immediately regretting his action. Images suddenly came to him- robots holding him on a table, opening his front hatch, a wire attached to his head to feed him new programming. It was everything his memory was missing. It came through, over and over again, giving him both joy and torture.

"But nothing's growing off him."

"His Element is different from yours. The Radiance is going to affect him differently. We need to wipe that spot off his wheel."

Voices- but perhaps Bouncer was too delirious. The robot could no longer focus on what was going on. He felt something pull him away, then push him forward. Bouncer pulled himself away from the thing, trying to flee- only for another thing to grab his shoulders.

"Get off me! Get off!" Bouncer cried fearfully.

"Bouncer, calm down! It's me, Eye-Brawl! That spot is gone, just give those effects a second to go away."

Bouncer struggled for another moment. The pain in his head slowly left, and with it his confusion. He found that it really was Eye-Brawl holding him by the shoulders. Tree Rex walked next to him, sap-like tears streaming down his face. Bouncer looked back at the edge of the island, noticing the specks in the sky had grown larger. How long had he been like that? If that tiny amount of Radiance could cause him that much anguish, how badly would the entire puddle leave him off?

"Shh. It's fine now," Eye-Brawl insisted. "No more Radiance. You're going to be fine."

Bouncer shoved him away. "You guys need to get out of here!" he yelled. "Eye-Brawl, you read my message, right? Take Tree Rex and go!"

"Yeah, what was that all about?" Tree Rex asked timidly. " 'I hate myself'? 'Don't worry about me'? 'It'll be over soon'?"

"You read it to him?" Bouncer asked the flying eyeball.

Headless crossed his arms as Eye-Brawl glared at him. "Yeah. I thought he'd like to know what his friend was feeling," Eye-Brawl insisted. "I got scared that you wanted to hurt yourself- and I wasn't far off, apparently."

No, he wasn't going to allow them to get hurt. "I'm a danger to you!" he hollered angrily. "The Arkeyans are tracking me- I know they are! Go, or they'll hurt you too!"

"We're not leaving you behind!" Tree Rex responded stubbornly.

They looked at the horizon, watching the specks get bigger and bigger. It wouldn't be much longer until the Arkeyan forces arrived. "Tree Rex, you should start running," Eye-Brawl told the tree man. "Make some distance from this place to keep the Arkeyans from finding you. We'll be right behind you."

"Will you guys be okay?" Tree Rex stammered.

"Of course. There's just something we need to do first."

Tree Rex wiped his tears away and quickly bolted in the direction of the village. Bouncer watched him go, thankful that Tree Rex wouldn't get hurt. But Eye-Brawl wasn't going anywhere. He seemed adamant in staying.

"Okay, let's make this quick," Eye-Brawl said, knuckles cracking. "If we can get that tracking device out before any of those pilots see us, we can trick them into thinking you're still here before we bolt."

"Excuse me?" Bouncer gasped.

"Didn't you hear a word I just said? We're getting your tracking device out."

"Grah! This is exactly what I didn't want happening! Just go with Tree Rex and hide!"

"I'm sick of running and hiding, Bouncer! That's why I came and helped you guys the other day! I'm ready to stinking do something about all of this! I thought you said you trusted me!"

"I DON'T TRUST MYSELF! I'M...I'm just too scared."

Bouncer was taken into a hug. "I know you're scared," Eye-Brawl insisted. "It's scary, risking your life for those who can't help themselves. It's scary, gaining friends that might get hurt doing this with you. Heck, it's scary to give your heart to someone else. But it's scarier to be completely alone when trying to do this. Imagine how terrified Tree Rex must be right now. We've all found each other, and we need to stay together. We'll be fine. I promise it'll all be okay."

The specks could now be seen as airships. "Let's get this over with," Bouncer decided.

Eye-Brawl released him. "Now, are you sure you don't know where they put the tracking device?" he asked.

"No, it came back to me," Bouncer realized. "It's in my front hatch, where my hard wiring is."

"Lay down and open it up."

Bouncer did as he asked. He opened his front hatch, revealing his sensitive hard wiring. He strained his neck to look, but only Eye-Brawl could see what was inside.

"There's this big box on the front of your motherboard," Eye-Brawl said, chuckling slightly. "This is the best they could do for a tracking device? It's not even hidden."

"They didn't think I'd disobey my programming," Bouncer suggested.

"It's attached to you by three bolts. This will be a bit tricky to pull off without damaging your inner circuitry. But if I fire my lasers at a few precise points, I bet I can get it off."

Eye-Brawl got off the headless giant, who turned and grabbed both of Bouncer's arms to give some aid. In this angle, Bouncer couldn't see how close the airships were getting. "What's their position?" he asked.

"Don't worry about them. Just focus on staying still," Eye-Brawl insisted. He lowered himself to one side of the tracking device, firing a small laser at it. Bouncer felt a tiny bit of pain as the bolt detached, but kept himself as still as possible. Eye-Brawl moved to the next bolt and shot a laser at that.

"I'm getting a bit worried...," Bouncer found himself saying.

"Don't be. We're almost done."

One more laser fired. Bouncer felt one more twinge of pain. Headless released him, slowly snatching up the tracking device and running off. Bouncer waited for a second before closing his front hatch. He felt fine. He felt like everything was going to be okay.

"Headless, just drop that off anywhere! We have to go!" Eye-Brawl shouted.

Headless returned, hoisting Bouncer off the ground. Eye-Brawl took his place, and they began running. Bouncer looked behind him for a minute, noticing how close the airships were getting. They sped off as quickly as possible, making it look like no Giants were even there.


They ran for a while, mostly looking for Tree Rex. Eye-Brawl checked back at the abandoned church just in case Tree Rex decided to hide in there. But the tree man couldn't be found- at which point the two of them realized with horror that they didn't tell Tree Rex when to stop running. They hurried along, making it to a dilapidated bridge that connected this island to another one that continued the abandoned village. They found Tree Rex there, catching his breath, and hopped to the other island to join him.

"Oh Tree Rex, thank goodness!" Bouncer gasped. "We're sorry! It took longer than we thought it would!"

Tree Rex looked up, finally noticing them arrive. "You're not hurt, are you?" he asked.

"We're just fine," Eye-Brawl promised him. "Those mean robots aren't even chasing us."

Bouncer looked back behind himself. As close as those airships got, he was fearful that they'd come and hurt his friends. But they weren't being chased. They'd made it out in time.

He suddenly found himself laughing giddily. "They're not chasing us!" he realized. "They're not chasing us! I'm free! I'm actually free from them!"

"Now what do we do?" Tree Rex wondered.

Bouncer and Eye-Brawl sat down with Tree Rex? Now what? Where would they go next? It seemed too soon to decide. But that was the beauty of it, Bouncer guessed. He could do anything he wanted now.

"We should find some slaves to free," Bouncer pondered. "We'll stick it to those slavers and declare that the Skylanders are here to defeat the Arkeyans."

Tree Rex smiled in delight. "We're going by that name now?" he begged him.

"Eye-Brawl raised a good point. It's time for us to stop running when we do these things. And you were right before- the people need something to look up to."

"Skylanders, eh? I have to admit, I thought it was a very good name," Eye-Brawl beamed. "Do you know what it means?"

"Sort of," Tree Rex shrugged. "It's just a group of different creatures who've united to save the world. Though...I guess we're still a bit small."

"We'll look for new members on the side."

Bouncer suddenly felt himself hurt again. It was from his heart- yes, he did indeed have one- and it ached. He remembered everything he told Tree Rex last night. And yet, the tree man didn't seem angry about it at all. "Hey man, none of those things I said last night were true," he apologized. "I just-"

"I explained it to him when I woke up," Eye-Brawl cut in. "He just bawled to me, asking why you hurt him like that, because he was so sure you had never felt that way. I suggested that maybe you were trying to spare him from something and wasn't sure what else to say."

"And then we read your message," Tree Rex replied. "We got really scared for you. I didn't care what you'd said after that."

Bouncer found himself deflating. "I thought if you hated me, it would make it easier for me to buy you guys time to get out of here," he continued. "Not...that it matters now, of course..."

"Do you still hate yourself?"

No comment.

Tree Rex leapt forward and hugged him tightly. "But you're awesome! And I'm not sure what I'd do without you!" he persisted. "Don't do this again! Any of this!"

Bouncer was human. He had these feelings. He had these wants and desires. He had this need for preservation, whether it was for himself or those he cared about. He had a heart. He knew he was human.

Bouncer hugged Tree Rex back. "Don't worry," he promised. "Nothing like this will ever happen again."