Academy Chronicles: Rise of the Skylanders

Chapter 13: Book Browsing

"Master Eon!" Spyro exclaimed as he entered the Academy. Awaiting all of us is a hallway adorned by stylish stone walls, ancient relics, illuminated with torches.

I turned to my brother, noticing Tails wasn't impressed at the lack of technological advances in the architecture.

"What do you expect? A laser show?" I said with a smirk.

"…Maybe." Tails replied.

Eventually, we all make it to the main lobby. In the middle lied a crystal centerpiece with the floating image of an old man, the spirit of Master Eon, the last Portal Master in Skylands.

"Ah, Spyro. I see you have brought some familiar friends. Greetings, Sonic." Eon said as he leaned forward to me.

"Nice to see ya again, Eon." I replied with a small salute.

Eon then adjusted his gaze to see the others. His eyes locked on Makoto and Kyoko.

"I see some new faces, as well. And you are?"

Makoto simply bowed slightly, not knowing how to acknowledge such a powerful, ancient man. "Makoto Naegi… Sir… Master… Uhh… Your Highness?"

Eon chuckled.

"Eon is fine, young man." He then turned to the detective. "And you?"

"Kyoko Kirigiri." Kyoko bluntly introduced.

"I see. Welcome, you two to Skylanders Academy. Now tell me, what brings you to our dimension?"

Sayaka stepped up in front of me.

"It's LOSE. Monokuma and his goons stole something valuable from us and made it here. We gotta track them down!" She explained.

"…I see, so you think we could help find them?" Eon asked.

Neptune looked at the others and then back to Eon.

"Well, duh."

Spyro spoke up after that.

"I suggest we check the library. If we can combine our knowledge and theirs, perhaps we can figure something out."

Master Eon nodded. "Sounds like a good idea. I will contact Hugo to assist you in your browsing."

"…Why exactly do we need this Hugo? It's a simple library, is it not?" Kyoko asked, eyebrow raising.

Pop Fizz then burst into laughter.

"I-I'm sorry, did that purple chick say the library is simple?! Haaaaahahaha!"

Kyoko looked down at the hysterical gremlin.

"How big is this library?"

Now I know why Tails wanted this place to be more advanced. We could actually, like search up specifics through a computer instead of combing through rows, and rows, and rows, and rows of books in what I think is the biggest room in the Academy.

And that's saying a lot, this place makes up an entire island!

I can hear Tails groaning from the other end of the room.

"…What letter are you on, Sayaka?" I groan, speeding through the lined up spines of every book filed under the letter G.

"I'm on D!"

"Yeesh, that slow?!" I groaned. "This is gonna take forever, and we don't have forever to spend!"

"Just don't just skim the titles. If you see something important and sounds like info LOSE would be interested in." Kyoko scolded me.

She should expect more of me. I wasn't skimming!

…Too much. I could at least comprehend the titles.

"How 'bout this?! The official documented Skylands history of cake recipes! This is to die for!" Pop Fizz asks from a top shelf, waving a book.

Spyro chuckled. "Even if it's not my Pop Fizz, he sure acted the same."

Next to Spyro, browsing the books, this time hopping from shelf to shelf is Hugo, Eon's apprentice. Unlike the human man, Hugo is a furry bear-like creature called a Mabu, bearing a large backpack and probably even larger glasses.

"I'm pretty sure villains aren't interested in stealing cakes, Pop!" Hugo corrected the gremlin, adjusting his eyewear.

Neptune, who was next to Pop Fizz looked down at Hugo.

"Heeeey, how would you know? Maybe they could be using that source code to make a good baking partner? I hear that's a big thing in tech nowadays!"

"L-Like I said, this isn't something villains would take interest in…" Hugo replied.

"How about that Lux Luthor guy? Didn't he steal 40 cakes? That's as many as four tens, and that's terrible!" Neptune poorly refuted.

Homura groaned as she walked across the books filed under M.

"Can you all just focus?" Homura groaned.

"Alright, alright." Neptune said, holding her hands up and turned around.

"She's always a party-poopah." Pop Fizz chuckles, imitating Neptune's motions.

Homura glared at the top shelf.

"I heard that…"

Madoka, meanwhile pulled out a book and analyzed it. "Um, could this do?"

Spyro walked up to Madoka, peeking over her shoulder. "Lemme see…"

He put his claw across the cover, tracing around the embossed titling as I came down to see Madoka's findings.

"Skylands' Undergrounds?" I recited, looking down at the cover.

"I suppose this is referring to the mines and things like that, although really all that's there are monsters and rare minerals." Spyro explained. "I've been there once, places like the Molten Mines and the Lava Lakes Railway."

He looked at me.

"The most powerful things there are the Eternal Fire Source and the Crucible of the Ages. Relics that were destroyed by the Sky Eater years ago…"

Hugo then ran up to the book.

"Hang on, what did you find?!" He asked.

Madoka turned to Hugo.

"Oh, it's nothing…"

Hugo looked at the book and swiped it from her hands. He opens up the table of contents.

"Hugo, it's just minerals. LOSE already has a big budget, it's not like they're short on cash…" Spyro tells the apprentice.

Hugo squinted, supposedly paying the dragon no mind. He shaked his head. "Perhaps in the mines… but there is something else that lies even deeper."

Spyro tilted his head.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Hugo then placed the book near Spyro's face and points at the lowest entry.

Spyro pushed the book back and put it a readable distance.

"…Elemental Foundations?"

His eyes then widen.

"…Ooooohhh…"

Meanwhile, I whistle to the others to come over. I especially call for someone else in particular.

"Tails, over here!" I said.

Hugo then took the book back, and showed it to everyone. "This is probably the most important thing LOSE could ever gain from Skylands! All I need is information from your program to confirm it!"

Makoto looked at the book. "Let's find out, then."

Tails cracked his knuckles and proceeds to read to the specified pages.

"Yeah, let's…"

Meanwhile, Neptune looked at the scene unfolding with awe.

"Oooooh! So we would be able to find our intel if we read the table of contents! I never do that!"

Kyoko looked at Neptune.

"Do you even read books?" She asked.

Neptune hums to herself.

"Hmmmm... no. Unless Strategy Guides count!"

"They don't count."

"Aw."