Purple27GameLord, who owns Elliott, asked for this one. Here you go, Amigo! Enjoy! :)
Skylanders belongs to Activision. Bendy And The Ink Machine belong to their respective owners. Blaze belongs to robotman25. Gin belongs to Guestspirit. I only own Rachel, Amelia, and Crystal.
A/N: Purple27GameLord helped me out with this one and this story does follow the BATIM games, but will be slightly different.
Elliott, Echo, And The Paint Maker
Rachel led the other Portal Masters into a studio that Master Eon had told them to enter. Trouble had arisen as Elliott and Echo were missing and needed to be found, along with Nightfall, Chill, and Grave Clobber, who had gone missing too.
The Tech Portal Master still recalled the words Master Eon had told them before setting out on their journey.
"Save two of them that are like you and beware trusting anyone."
She shuddered before she recalled that she didn't know anything about Elliott and Echo, which was unusual. Master Eon had said that it was possible their memories had been altered a bit, but he didn't know by who. She gave a grunt and hit the wall with her fist, making the others look at her.
"Rach? You okay?" Blaze asked, looking concerned.
She took a deep breath. "I was just remembering what Master Eon said before we started on this journey," she said. "And how it seems our memories have been affected again, which really makes me mad."
"I don't blame you," he said honestly. "I don't like it either."
"What if we don't find Elliott or Echo?" Amelia asked.
"We have to," Gin said. "And try to reverse whatever was done to us to wipe our memories of them."
"We have to find Chill, Grave Clobber, and Nightfall too," Crystal said. "Master Eon said they went missing too."
"But where could they have gone?" Rachel asked as they looked around the room, finding an odd device in the center. "What's that?"
Blaze moved closer and saw a paper on the item and picked it up, looking at it. "Looks like it's called a paint maker," he said.
"A paint maker? What's that?" Gin asked.
"Not sure," the Fire/Undead/Water Portal Master said, looking at the paper more closely. "There's a list of items here. They're apparently needed in case the paint maker is broken."
"Let's have a look," said one of the other male Portal Masters and they worked together to check the machine. Crystal noticed something.
"It looks like something goes in here," she said, indicating to some empty spots.
"It's definitely missing something or somethings," Rachel said as her knack with Tech helped her see that.
Amelia looked around. "Maybe we'll find what it needs around here," she said. "Blaze, what items does it say we need?"
"A small mason jar, a paintbrush, blue and black paints, construction paper, scissors, and glue," he said, reading off the list.
"Sounds like things an painter would use," Gin said. "Or maybe another artist."
"Maybe if we fix the paint maker and turn it on, it'll give us some answers," one of the other female Portal Masters suggested.
"What have we got to lose?" Blaze asked.
"Okay, everyone pair up, and search for the items," Rachel said. "Bring any that you find back here."
She then paused. "Bring anything that looks unusual back too," she said. "You never know when something unusual might come in handy."
They all nodded and headed out. "And be cautious," Gin said. "Master Eon did say it was possible that Chill and Grave Clobber...might have been killed."
He said the last part softly and they all nodded solemnly.
About an hour later, they returned to what they dubbed the paint maker room and placed the items they had found on a nearby table. They then looked it over and pulled out a small mason jar, a paintbrush, two containers of black and blue paints, a package of construction paper, a pair of scissors, and a bottle of glue. The other things were a short metal pipe, a large clock gear, a pair of ballet slippers, a doll, and a picture frame.
"There's not much here," Amelia said. "The rooms we searched were mostly barren except for these few things."
"She's right," Gin said. "It's really unusual."
The others nodded and Rachel picked up the mason jar. "Anyone else getting like a 'haunted house' vibe?" She asked. "Because I can't shake the feeling that we're either being watched or something's going to happen."
"I feel like that too," her little sister said, nodding.
"I've been getting a vibe like that too," Blaze said. "Come on. Let's get the paint maker fixed and see if we can get some answers."
Placing the items into the paint maker properly, they stood back and Gin went into the room that he saw had a power box and flipped it on, returning as they saw the paint maker warm up and suddenly, a large white canvas appeared.
Huddling close together, they watched as the paint maker began spouting out paint that seemed to have a mind of its own and formed something that looked unusual. "What kind of painting is that?" One of the male Portal Masters asked.
"It looks like a silhouette painting," Rachel said, recalling when she had studied that in beginning art class. "You found a picture or design, placed a sheet of glass on it, and used black paint to trace and paint it on the glass, like an impression. You have to apply several layers to it before it's ready to go against a background of your chosing and framed."
Blaze looked closely at the painting. "Doesn't this look familiar?" He asked.
They moved closer to look at it and saw he was right. "It...It looks like someone with a dragon, only the dragon doesn't have wings," Crystal said.
"She's right," Gin said.
"Is the paint maker trying to tell us something?" Amelia asked.
"It looks too deliberate to be random," said another female Portal Master.
They agreed on that one. "Maybe we should look around again," said another male Portal Master. "Maybe we missed something while looking for the supplies to start up the machine."
"We could have," said another female Portal Master.
"Okay, but stay close," Rachel said. "We search together. Don't split up for anything."
It wasn't long before they found a room blocked off with some planks and it only took a little bit to remove them and enter the room. Suddenly, Crystal screamed and they turned to find her staring at an inky form that rose up and then fled the room, making the young girl fall down. "What was that?" Blaze asked, pulling out his swords.
Gin looked down the hall where the thing had run off. "I don't see it anywhere," he said. "Whatever it was, it didn't look like a costume."
Amelia bent down, finding what looked like paint on the floor and she carefully touched it, bringing her hand up to examine what she had found. "Paint?" She asked, looking closely at the blue substance and seeing something black leaking from it. "And ink?"
"An ink and paint mixture?" Rachel asked. "I've never heard of that before."
"Where did it come from?" One of the others asked.
"I think from whatever jumped out and scared Crystal," Gin said. "The trail is going the same way the creature took off in."
"Then something is here," Blaze said. "But what?"
"And why?" Crystal asked, clinging to her sister.
Heading out, they kept their eyes open for any more of the strange mixture and saw some areas seemed to have been flooded with the odd mixture. What was worse was that it looked recent.
They then came to a dead end, but one of the female Portal Masters knocked on the wall. "It's hollow," she said.
"It must be a room that got boarded up," said one of the male Portal Masters.
"Should we check it out?" Gin asked.
"Yes," Amelia said. "But be careful."
Rachel used her telekinesis to break through the wall and shield herself and everyone while she did so. Nothing came out of the exposed room and so they entered, looking around before Rachel grabbed her head, making the others jump slightly. "Sis? What is it?" Crystal asked.
Rachel's eyes flashed gold before she stood up, not speaking for a moment.
She saw a young man and a blue dragon that didn't have wings and they were sitting together under a tree with the dragon singing softly and the young man smiling up at her.
She blinked and the image disappeared. "Who was that?" She asked.
"Who?" Blaze asked.
She looked at them. "I saw...a young man and a dragon, but she didn't have wings," she said. "I...I think they're the same ones from that painting the paint maker made."
Everyone looked at each other. "A flashback?" Gin asked.
"Could it have been this Elliott and Echo Master Eon told us about?" Asked another Portal Master.
"I...I don't know," Rachel admitted.
Blaze looked over the room, seeing there was only one way out, which was the way they came. "Maybe we should get some rest," he said. "And take turns standing guard."
Everyone nodded and after deciding who would stand guard and for how long, they managed to get comfortable on the wood floor and fall asleep.
The night passed without disturbance and Amelia, who had taken the final shift, saw sunlight peeking from behind the wood on the far side of the room. She was examining it as the others woke up. "Hey, guys. Maybe this is a way out," she said. "I see sunlight between the cracks of the wood."
"Only one way to find out," Blaze said, activating his swords and chopping away the wood.
To their surprise, it was a hallway that branched off in three directions. "Okay, so not a way out," Amelia said in disappointment.
"Looks like another part of this place, whatever it is," Gin said, stepping carefully. The others followed before Rachel and Blaze looked at each other and nodded, finding some boards and putting them up to replace the ones they had taken down.
"What are you guys doing?" Crystal asked.
"Covering our tracks," Rachel said. "If that thing that scared you is chasing us, it won't know that we went this way."
"Or that we were even in this room," Blaze said as they finished and continued on their way.
A moment later, they paused as they heard a voice, but it didn't sound familiar. "Oh, I love working with Nightfall," it said before a static sound came and then stopped.
"A recording?" Gin asked.
"Possibly," Amelia said.
Crystal opened a nearby door and gasped in surprise. "Guys, look," she said.
They entered and found pictures and Rachel gasped as she saw them. Gin looked at her. "What is it?" He asked. "You look like you saw a ghost."
The Tech Portal Master pointed to the pictures. "That's who I saw in my vision," she said.
"Elliott and Echo," one of the others read before standing up. "Someone saw these two as heroes."
"So Elliott and Echo are heroes?" Crystal asked. "Like us?"
"A Portal Master and Skylander partner?" Blaze asked.
"But if they are...," one of the male Portal Masters began.
"Then where are they?" One of the female Portal Masters finished.
Gin found a note and held it up. "Hey, look at this," he said. "It says to turn on the valves to clean up the paint and ink mess."
"Valves?" Rachel asked. "Where?"
"It doesn't say," he said.
"Maybe we'll fix them as we find them," Amelia said. "We did see some of the rooms that looked like they had been flooded recently."
Nodding, they set off, finding five valves, which were thankfully easy to fix and as they continued looking for anything suspicious, they entered another room and to their shock, Chill and Grave Clobber were in the room. "Chill? Grave Clobber?" Rachel asked.
The two turned to them. "Oh, Portal Masters, thank goodness," Chill said.
The Portal Masters looked at each other before Crystal stepped forward. "We were told you possibly had been killed by Nightfall," she said.
"Not yet," Grave Clobber said. "But that may change."
"Follow us," Chill said. "We'll get you to a safe room. You can rest there."
Agreeing, they followed and sat down in the room, huddling together as Chill and Grave Clobber explained that there was something very bad happening. Nightfall had captured them and trapped them here, along with two others, Elliott and Echo. "She's very powerful," Chill said.
The Portal Masters huddled together. "Okay, what do we do?" Gin asked worriedly. "Did Nightfall turn on us?"
"If she did, then we've got big trouble," Blaze said. "And if so, we've got to stop her."
They continued discussing ideas and after a bit, continued their journey, finding a broken easel and canvas in one of the rooms. After they fixed it, Crystal found a shortcut back to where they had started and they checked to see that the paint maker was properly working. Carefully closing the door again, Rachel motioned the others to stay put a moment. "I'm going to check something out," she said and headed off down a nearby hallway.
She found a black door and opened it to see it was a personal room, one that looked like it belonged to Nightfall and music was playing, apparently a favorite song. Ducking back out, Rachel selected another room to look in when something jumped out at her, making her screech in surprise as she saw that it looked to be Ellliott and Echo, who both disappeared right after. Getting a bit spooked now, Rachel headed back, finding the others and telling them what she discovered. "I'm finding things that are giving us more questions than answers," she admitted.
Suddenly, a figure appeared before them and they gasped, just recognizing the person beneath the shadows. "Nightfall?" Gin asked.
"Good guess," she said snarkily. "I can show you the way out, but you have to do what I say."
No one looked happy about that, but looked at her. "What do we have to do?" Crystal asked.
At first, the tasks were menial, but then Nightfall demanded they collect the relics that they had gathered sometime back. "But those are at the Academy," Blaze said.
"Fool! I brought them here, but lost them!" Nightfall said. "Now find them!"
They all headed out. "We've got to stop her, Rach," Amelia said.
"I know," Rachel said. "She can't get the relics, no matter what."
"We'll hide them," said another of the female Portal Masters.
After a long search, they found the relics, or rather, duplicates of them. Looking at each other in confusion, they grabbed them and hid them again before going back to find Nightfall, who suddenly appeared before them again and she held Chill and Grave Clobber prisoner with long chains of shadows. "Too late, Portal Masters," she growled, teleporting them all to a room that was apparently a dead end.
As they got their senses back, Rachel activated her telekinesis and grabbed everyone. "I'm getting tired of whatever game she's playing," she said.
"Same here," Gin said.
"Let's go rescue Chill and Grave Clobber," Amelia said.
"And maybe find Elliott and Echo," Blaze said.
"We have to," Crystal said.
They made it back to the room where they had found the duplicate relics and suddenly saw a tape recorder on a table. Rachel hit the 'Play' button and they heard a familiar laugh.
"Hurry, Portal Masters, if you want to save your friends," came Nightfall's voice.
The Portal Masters all looked at each other, determination filling them. "This ends now," one of the male Portal Masters said.
The others nodded. "No more games," Blaze said, pulling out his swords, which became fiery right then.
Rachel looked at them. "Let's do it," she said as they all upgraded to their Imaginator forms, ready to activate their Skyelementals if need be.
They found a map in another room and followed it until they got to the Dark Realm, finding it was too dark. Amelia used her powers to give them some light. "Let's see about finding some other lights," she said.
As they did so, Nightfall came out, laughing. "Can you really save your friends?" She taunted them. "What if your friends are turned into something else?"
She raised her hand towards Chill and Grave Clobber, mutating them into horrible creatures, but to her shock, their minds didn't fall under her power, but instead, Chill used her ice powers and Grave Clobber used his brawler powers to reverse the mutation, which made Nightfall furious.
All of a sudden, all three were hit by Nightfall and disappeared into plumes of darkness. The Portal Masters blinked. "What the...?" Rachel asked.
Nightfall turned to them. "Sorry it took me so long, guys," she said. "I'm the real Nightfall. My evil version still has Chill, Grave Clobber, Elliott, and Echo under her power."
Blaze looked at her, as did Gin, and both nodded. "She's the real one," Gin said, noticing Nightfall's hook hand.
"Where are they?" Blaze asked.
"Follow me," Nightfall said.
They got to a new hideout, but a moment later, Elliott and Echo found them, dripping black in and blue paint everywhere. "Let's move!" Amelia said as they escaped and ran to find another room to possibly use as a strategic battle point. Finding a nearby passage, they ran down it, only to be attacked by Elliott and Echo, who tried to block them from getting in.
Nightfall came up to them. "That's not the real Elliott and Echo!" She said. "They're decoys!"
Rachel suddenly gasped as she had another flashback and she blinked before looking at the others. "She's right," she said. "Because Elliott doesn't go look for a fight. He avoids them if he can."
A cranking sound suddenly reached them and they turned to find another paint maker machine. "Use that to stop them!" Nightfall said.
A table filled with blue and black paint cans appeared too and the Portal Masters lost no time in filling the machine and using it against the imposters, hitting them dead on with the paint. As they kept firing the paint at them, Gin noticed something. "Look," he said. "They're getting worn down."
"It's like the spell is fading," said another male Portal Master.
"Good," said Blaze. "That's exactly what we need right now."
One last shot, which was a combo of the paint, hit the decoys dead on, breaking evil Nightfall's spell and she came out looking furious. The real Nightfall blasted her and revealed the true form of the evil Nightfall. "It's the Yin that was infected by the Darkness," she explained as she opened a black hole and sent the evil back to where it came from.
Peace filled the room and Nightfall smiled. "Come," she said, leading the way back to the room where they had first found the paint maker. They not only found the machine again, but also found Elliott, Echo, Chill, and Grave Clobber there too, alive and well.
"Guys!" Crystal exclaimed, running up to them.
The Portal Masters felt something strange and shook their heads before realizing their memories had been restored and they welcomed their fellow Portal Master and the Skylanders warmly, heading back to the Academy and reporting to Master Eon, who was pleased that Elliott, Echo, Grave Clobber, and Chill were back. "Well done, everyone," he said with a smile. "You have succeeded once more and not only protected Skylands, but saved your friends as well."
Everyone smiled, glad that the mission was over and that they had succeeded once again.
Skylands, in the library...
On a wall hung a poster of the thirteen Portal Masters and their Skylander partners, including Elliott, Echo, Chill, Nightfall, and Grave Clobber and it was signed by all of them. "This poster behind me is a reminder of the friendship between the thirteen Portal Masters and the Skylanders, who have kept Skylands safe whenever danger has reared it's ugly head," said a young woman to a group that was seated before her on beanbags before the large blue chair she was sitting in.
The listeners of her story were the children of the Portal Masters and Skylanders from the poster and they were wide-eyed and amazed by the story she had just finished telling. One of them, a little girl of about five, moved closer to the storyteller.
"Please tell us another one, Aunt Crystal," she begged.
The others also begged for another story and Crystal, who was now a young woman of thirty years, smiled and nodded as she fondly remembered her partners, friends, and family as she sat up straight to tell the eager children another story.
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GoldGuardian2418