Academy Chronicles: Rise of the Skylanders

Chapter 18: All According To Plan

We continued to be pinned down by these massive Drow. No matter how much we tried, no matter how much power we could muster, there wasn't much we can do.

I can't even summon Oktavia under this much stress.

"Sayaka, we can't…" Sonic muttered to me before getting his mouth covered by a Drow's massive hand.

Before any sense of hope was lost however, a barrage of bullets pierced the Drow, obliterating them and freeing us. Sonic gasped for air as he looked up to see his saviors. I directed my attention to what Sonic was looking at to see the Dreamcast descend down upon us with the door open. Standing there, clear as day, holding smoking guns were…

…Makoto and Kyoko?!

"Uh, hi!" Makoto nervously chuckled.

Me and Sonic just looked at him, dumbfounded.

"We're expecting a Thank You." Kyoko added with a slight smirk.

Sonic, mouth agape for a while pointed at the detective.

"…Good. You're quipping. Spoken like a true hero nowadays." Sonic said back with a smirk.

Zipping by us is Spyro, who whistled to us.

"Cut the banter! We're not done yet!"

While the skies are cleared, the actual back of the dragon was not. The shrine to the Cloudbreather's head is just within our reach though, and we can't let the remaining Drow get in our way!

Getting out our weapons, and with the entire air squad on our side, we charged ahead with guns and elemental blasts blazing.

It seemed like no time at all until we were at the homestretch. The Drow stood absolutely no chance against us.

I was especially surprised at Makoto and Kyoko! They had surprisingly good aim. With me jumping up and slicing the final big Drow to oblivion, the stairway to the shrine of the Cloudbreather is clean of evil. As he disappeared though, a walkie talkie appeared from the smoke and dust.

The Dreamcast landed as Makoto and Kyoko hopped out, still holding their guns.

Kyoko leaned down and picked up the device.

"That's… interesting. Nothing typically came out of these ones."

Kyoko pressed the button to activate it and proceeded to talk through it.

"Hello? Hello?" She asked.

She waited for a couple seconds, but no response.

"This must be for calling backup." Kyoko concluded.

"And perhaps we killed that backup on the way over! Haha!" I responded with confidence.

Kyoko put the walkie talkie on the Dreamcast and sighed.

"Still, keep your guard up, Sayaka. There's no telling of this is a sneak attack or not." Kyoko warned.

"Relaaax!" Pop Fizz said, hopping out of the ship. "If they come for us, we kick their butts! No biggie!"

Kyoko, withholding any sense of suspicion aside from a tightening grip on her gun shrugged and moved ahead of us.

Makoto, looking back and forth between us then followed Kyoko.

"I'm with her." Homura said as she followed. "Be ready for an ambush."

"I think you're being too paranoid, Transfer Student. If they called for backup, it would be to assist the guys on the front lines, not just wait for them all to die and send in the next wave! That's… kinda what backup is." I said to the pessimistic Magical Girl.

"And you expect a band of twisted elves led by a sadistic bear who takes pleasure in the deaths of even her own loved ones to act like a standard military?" Kyoko asked from afar.

"My point exactly." Homura says back.

"Y-You guys just love to take the fun and ease out of everything, do you?" I pouted before moving forward with the others.

We walked down the shrine, noticing all the oriental detailing across the area. We see some Mabu and fox-people, thanking us as we walk down for saving them from the Drow. Spyro even took it upon himself to do a bit of searching beyond our linear walkway to ensure nobody was hurt. Luckily for us, there were no major casualties.

Eventually, we were met with a group of seven Mabu, standing by the final door. One in a white robe bowed to us while the other six surrounded us.

"Welcome, heroes. Thank you for saving our fair civilization. I take it you would like to speak to the Cloudbreather?" He muttered.

"Um, yes!" Madoka replied. "We… have this book so we can find this kidnapped author! If we can find him, we can stop some evil plans to kill millions!"

The lead Mabu stroked his chin.

"I see… I see. If that is the case…"

The Mabu then threw a white and black sphere on Madoka's face as it transformed into a helmet resembling Monokuma's face!

The other six then tossed helmets on the rest of us. Distracted, we dropped our weapons to pull them off, but to no avail.

"Ergh! What is this?!" Spyro growled.

The lead Mabu then tossed a square magnet on the floor, pulling us toward it and locking our heads into a specific location. We were totally helpless.

Madoka and Homura tried to spawn their long range weapons, but before they could open fire, they were immediately disarmed.

"What's going on?! Who are you?!" I called out desperately, trying to pry the helmets off.

The lead Mabu then began to laugh.

"Puhuhuhu! You should've listened to Kyoko, because that walkie talkie was to bring ME in!"

His entire form, as well as the other Mabu began to change, revealing that these were just holograms. The real forms were none other than Monokuma, Kurokuma, and the rest of their cubs.

They laughed in unison.

At the best of my viewing ability, I notice the other Mabu and fox people have vanished, replaced by bigger higher ups of LOSE.

It was a trap, the whole time.

"Well, well, well. Looks like the SkyLOSER, Spyro brought along some friends!" Said a small bald man, draped in a black robe.

"…Kaos!" Spyro spat back.

"Hah! They played right into our fucking trap!" Kurokuma bellowed out in laughter. "We're the real Trap Team! Am I right?! Someone gimmie five! Right? Riiiight?!"

The annoying black bear raised his hand, but received no reciprocation.

"…Sure, sure, okay." He muttered, bringing it down.

Walking up towards us is Ronin, the bounty hunter from before.

"So what do we do, huh? Tie 'em up? Execute them on the spot?" The minifigure asked, pointing his gun.

Monokuma raised his paw, halting him.

"Not just yet, trigger happy. I need something from them." Monokuma said, snapping his fingers.

Just then, steps then began to approach us as the other LOSE members spread out… for their leader. She loomed over us, wearing a stupidly large outfit almost encompassing her whole body. Her hair, purple. Her eyes, red. All with a blank expression on her face.

"…Been a while, Poker Face." Sonic said at the sight of her.

Izanami. The goddess of death.