Academy Chronicles: Rise of the Skylanders
Chapter 15: Where To Now?
"Liberators? What's that? Uh, can I get a little more detail?" Spyro asked.
"Liberators. Like we said, they're living programs that… destroyed my whole world." Makoto explained.
Following up on that, Tails stepped up.
"Me, Cyrus Borg and Chihiro coded Alter-Ego using reversed engineered Liberator source code I salvaged after that whole crisis. He was made to track down and stop Liberators. A weapon." He said.
I nodded. "They are usually made to track me and all other Magical Girls down. Since our world is full of suffering, they are coded to kill us. To liberate us from life, the one thing they think is holding us back from our written purpose: To die."
"Yeah, like Sayaka said, they kill those from franchises involving a lot of death. And what worse franchise is there than Danganronpa?" Sonic finished.
Spyro squinted his eyes. Due to previous adventures with us, he has a somewhat decent grasp on our roles as fictional characters. Still, he's trying to wrap his head around this new factor.
"…Riiiight…"
"Whatever the case is," Homura said with a shrug. "LOSE stole that source code from us, which means they have the means to make their own Liberators. They could use those Elemental Banks Hugo described to make them even stronger. Maybe something Alter-Ego can't counter."
I then piped up, disrupting the Transfer Student.
"Anyway, we need to get to that island before that's possible! Hugo, you know where that is?"
Hugo shook his head.
"I'm afraid not, Sayaka. This book didn't list the coordinates to the island. For good reason, of course if this is what that resource can be used for."
"So… how did LOSE find that place?" Madoka asked.
Neptune sticks out her tongue playfully, which is a signal to us that she's thinking. But considering this is Neptune… will this be useful, or lead to another witty joke?
"…Um. Find the author?" Neptune stated.
Hugo's eyes widened. He looked at the cover again.
"…That's… possible. The author is listed clear as day."
"And that is?" Sonic asked.
"Onk Beakman. A famous penguin adventurer. For years, he trekked through the unexplored parts of Skylands to uncover its secrets. His notes state that he helped the Mabu scientists safely make it to that location due to his experience."
Pop Fizz looked up to the sky. "So, do you know where this Onk Donk guy is?"
"He leaves his location unknown. I don't know where he lives." Hugo replied.
"Welp, game over guys. Time to pack up and go home!" Twirling on his heels, Pop Fizz was just about to march out of the Academy.
"…But there is a way to find out."
Pop Fizz kept still in his marching position.
"You see, Pop, this is something made by Onk himself and distributed all across Skylands. Anyone who has that book actually has a way to get to him: The Cloudbreather Dragon."
"The Cloudbreather Dragon? Yeah… we used that guy to track down Eon when he was imprisoned once, right? All he needed was, uhhh…"
The dragon snapped his clawed fingers repeatedly, trying to remember.
"…Something. Like, a possession or creation from that person, and he can tell exactly where in Skylands a person is!"
"Ooooh! So it's like, a super stalking tool. That's totally not creepy at all!" I said with a smirk tinged with a hint of disgust.
"Regardless, LOSE must have used a copy of that book to find Beakman using that dragon," Kyoko said to me. "Something I never thought I could say."
"And then, maybe they forced Beakman to take them to that facility, right?" Makoto asked his girlfriend.
Kyoko nodded as a response.
With that inference laid out before us, our mission is clear. Find the Cloudbreather Dragon, then we find LOSE.
I then looked at everyone. With a determined collision of my fist and my palm, I call out to everyone.
"Alright, everybody! It's time we find that dragon and stop LOSE from making those Liberators!" I exclaimed with confidence.
Sonic chuckled as he saw me taking the lead.
"You heard her, guys. Let's rock and roll!"
With that, we bid our goodbyes to Eon and Hugo. Spyro came along with us as we make it out of the Academy as fast as we can. Not a second can be wasted!
Tails whipped out his DEUS, pressing on the watch's touchscreen to unlock the doors to the Dreamcast. We all hopped inside and took our seats while our fox pilot used the Master System to start up the ship.
As the ship flew up in the sky, I leaned forward from my seat to see the piloting area. Sitting alone is Tails, who turned to us as he pulled a microphone down from the ceiling.
"Alright, Hugo texted me the coordinates to the Cloudbreather's resting place. Let's hope he's there." He announced through the speakers across the Dreamcast.
"…And expect resistance. No doubt LOSE is gonna try to stop us from reaching him."
"No sweat. We'll make mincemeat of them!" I said.
"Don't get too reckless, Sayaka Miki. We still have two ordinary humans with us." Homura warned me from across my seat, nudging to the seat where Makoto and Kyoko are.
I turned to see the detective looking ahead, while Makoto is slumped over by the window, giving the sky a thousand yard stare…
"…Right. We'll cautiously make mincemeat of them."