Skylanders Academy: New Horrizon
by andresponceb2002
Chapter 2) Hunted
It was a sunny day, the sky was clear and peaceful as Spyro laid down on his thinking spot. Not the thinking spot, where everyone went to ponder deep thoughts, but rather one Spyro found for himself. It was a small secluded isle, behind the Academy, it had a couple of large rocks, that hid a small clearing behind them, leaving it almost completely unnoticeable, all great qualities for a place to be alone with one's own thoughts.
"I wonder," Spyro thought out loud. "Are they still waiting for me?"
The purple dragon though longingly of his family. He had a burning desire to see them, to see what they were like. Spyro had received a chance to make this all true, thanks to Master Eon, and on that moment he had felt had felt happier than he ever remembered. But now, that chance had been put on hold after a couple of evil, pitch-black dragons Spyro creatively nicknamed Orange Eyes and Brown Eyes, had tried to kidnap him. After that, Master Eon deduced that a new great evil was rising in the Skylands, and that just wasn't something they could ignore.
"I guess we'll just have to wait a little longer to find out." Spyro said, getting up and taking flight back to the Academy.
Cynder was walking beside Roller Brawl and Hex. They were on their way to and Undead Club group activity on the clearings west of the Academy. Once there, club president Hex had arranged a book reading for her friends to enjoy.
"Are you at least going to tell us what book it is?" Roller Brawl asked. "Because I'm a little picky around my literature."
"I promise it will be something all of us can enjoy." Hex said reassuringly. "But it's a surprise and we're almost there, so just be a little bit more patient."
"Urgh, Fine." Roller Brawl said, crossing her arms, but not complaining anymore.
Then Hex looked at Cynder. The dragoness had a distant look on her face and seemed a little troubled. "Cynder?" Hex asked tentatively. "Are you alright? You haven't said a word all the way here and you look a little down. Is everything ok?"
The violet dragoness suddenly snapped back into focus. "Ahhh, y-yeah, I'm fine Hex, just thinking about some stuff." Cynder said ambiguously.
"What kind of stuff?" Roller Brawl asked.
"We heard Spyro is back." Hex interjected. "But he is being chased by some evil, dark dragons, right? Is that what's on your mind?"
That was exactly what was on Cynder's mind. She would have been overjoyed to hear her friend had returned, if it didn't mean he was being targeted by evil-doers who wanted to kidnap him. "Yeah," Cynder said flatly. "You guessed it."
"Oh Cyndie," Hex said warmly. "You don't need to worry about that right now. Spyro is one tough Skylander. And you already showed those evil-doers what happens when you mess with one Skylander. You mess with all of us." She said reassuringly, putting her arms around Roller Brawl and Cynder. "Now we should just relax with some quality reading." She finished, as they arrived at their destination.
It was a medium sized island, with some large rocks and a tree. There was a large clearing in the middle perfect for a sitting down to read a good book.
"Alright," Hex began. "Who wants to read… The Haunting of the Red Manor!" She said in a jokingly spooky voice.
"Aw yeah!" Roller Brawl cheered. "You know I love scary books!" She said as she skated over to her friend at the island's center.
The scene calmed Cynder down. It was quite serene. The peaceful, sunny day, her friends happily reading a good book together, it really took her mind of recent troubles. She began walking over to her friends, ready to have a fun Undead Club meeting, but as she approached, something caught her eye, and filled her with dread. "Guys Watch out!" She shouted.
Hex and Roller Brawl turned around, confused at their friend's warning, but as soon as they did, all confusion went away.
From behind the tree, a dragon emerged. It's scales were such a pure black, that they absorbed all of the sunlight hitting them, making the dragon seem flat and detailess.
"Is that one of those evil dragons you were talking about?" Roller Brawl asked Cynder, getting ready for a fight.
"No, this one is different." Cynder responded, noticing some differences between the dragon in front of her and the ones she had prviously faced. Most noticeably, this dragon had watery, blue eyes, but just like the others, they were perfectly round and empty. It also had strange finn-like horns and a webbed tail, suggesting that this was once some sort of water dragon.
"Well," Hex said, ready for combat. "There are three of us and one of them. I think we can take this."
"Yeah!" Cynder and Roller Brawl responded in unison, getting into combat positions and ready for a fight.
But suddenly a loud sound, like an explosion, suddenly came from behind the Skylanders. They turned around to see the source of the disturbance, and in the middle of a small, scorched crater, they found it.
"Another one!?" Roller Brawl asked nervously. "How many evil dragons are after you guys?"
The newcomer had the trademark black scales, but it looked quite different than the rest of the dragons so far. For starters, it's eyes were a burning red, that glowed with a scary contrast to the black scales. It also seemed to have feathers instead of wing membranes or a tail. Its snout was also very pointy and sharp, like a bird's beak.
"Well now it's three on two," Hex said. "Aaaand we're surrounded."
Both dark dragons had stayed still since they had revealed themselves, but a few seconds after Hex stopped talking, they pounced in sync, breath attacks ready and aimed at the Skylanders.
Spyro was on his way to Academy common room to talk to Master Eon. The purple dragon was really troubled about what had been going on recently, and whenever he felt like that he always went to Master Eon for answers. Taking in all that was going on, Spyro really needed a few of those right now.
Suddenly, Spyro heard a strange noise nearby behind him. Kind of like a short hiss. He stopped his flight and looked around, trying to see if he had been followed or it was just a trick of the wind. After not seeing anyone or anything, Spyro assumed it was the latter and continued on his way to the Academy. He landed on the Stone floor of the main entrance and began to approach the door. once he opened it and crossed through he heard the same hissing sound, much closer this time. "Alright, Who is that!?" He shouted at thin air, getting a fittingly soundless response. The dragon shook his head, slightly irritated and called for Master Eon. "Master Eon? Helooo?"
"Eon isn't here right now." Kaossandra's voice announced as the sorceress emerged from the Relics Room bookcase vault. "But as the new headmistress of Skylander Academy I will gladly answer any doubts you have." She said in a mellow voice.
Spyro smiled and took flight to meet Kaossandra at the second floor of the living room. "So, uh," Spyro started shakely. "You seem to know an awful lot about the magic behind turning Orange Eyes and Brown Eyes evil, and about this whole mess in general. I was wondering if there was anything else you could tell me about it?"
Kaossandra darkened slightly, not eager to touch the subject, but after a short sigh, she spoke up. "There isn't a lot you don't already know. These dragons were turned dark and evil by an advanced dark magic spell. This is the original version of the spell Strykore used on you, and it has a much nastier effect. However." The sorceress paused. "I remember that this version had something strange about it." Kaossandra said, taking her hand to her chin in thought.
"Something strange?" Spyro asked curious. "What kind of strange?"
"I think it was something about complicity." Kaossandra said. "Yes, this spell seemed to be designed to ensure total complicity from the victim, and it did that by putting them on a puppet-like state, where any orders from the caster were undeniable, but all will of one's own was lost, making it so that the caster had to feed orders to the puppets so that they could take any sort of action."
"Wait." Spyro interjected. "So if they follow the caster's orders? They aren't evil on their own?" he asked eagerly.
"Um, I guess you could say that..." Kaossandra responded.
"So that means," Spyro beagan enthusiastically. "That if we get the caster, these dragons should all go back to their former selves, right?"
Kaossandra was about to speak but a loud sound of glass ceramic shattering interrupted her and slightly startled Spyro. Then Kaossandra walked over to the source of the sound to find a broken blue vase. "That's odd." She said, suspicious.
Spyro suddenly heard the hissing sound again, even closer than last time. "Ok, who is that?!" It's not funny!" He shouted. "You heard that right?" He asked Kaossandra.
"I did." She answered. "And I don't think we are alone." The sorceress then raised her arms, closed her eyes and began chanting a spell. Her arms started to glow purple and her voice changed slightly. Then she opened her eyes and extended her arms, releasing a pink mist circle, which covered all of the common room, but phased harmlessly through Spyro.
"Ummm, what was that?" Spyro asked.
"A revelation spell." Kassandra answered. "And it worked." She said, pointing at the wall behind Spyro.
When Spyro turned around he jumped in alarm. It was another dark dragon, clinging to the wall with it's head pointed at Spyro. The purple dragon noticed the intruder looked different from Orange Eyes or Brown Eyes. This one was even smaller than Orange Eyes, and had a similarly skinny build, but it had several thin horns and spikes coming out of it's head and the back of it's arms. It also had a bushy tail and wings. And this one's round, emotionless eyes were a vibrant green.
"Well," Spyro began, stretching his wings and lowering his head. "I think we know what we're going to be calling you pal."
"Green Eyes?" Kaossandra guess disappointedly, charging up her magic for the ensuing fight.
"Green Eyes" Spyro agreed with a smile.
After this, Green Eyes fired a spiky yellow orb at Spyro, which the purple dragon dodged narrowly. Then Green eyes crawled of the side of the wall onto the lower floor of the living room, where it waited for Spyro.
Spyro then flew up and launched a fireball at Green Eyes, who fired another yellow orb. The two proyectiles crashed into each other and caused a violent blast of energy and smoke. Then Spyro charged at Green Eyes, diving straight at the dark dragon as bright flames built up on his horns. But as Spyro gor close to Green Eyes, it started spinning around in place, which seemed stupid, but shortly after, several green bulbs sprouted from the ground around Green eyes.
"Are those, watermelons?" Spyro asked incredulous, about to ram straight into one. And when he did, the watermelon exploding violently,causing Spyro to be blasted back against a wall.
"That's enough!" Spyro heard Kaossandra shout. Then Spyro saw as a purple lightning hit Green Eyes so hard, the small dragon was flung over the empty clearing behind Master Eon's desk. After several seconds, the intruder seemed to have gone away, and Spyro began to stand up, covered in watermelon juice.
"So," Kaossandra began. "There's more of them."
"Yeah," Spyro agreed. "But how many more? How many have to go through this?" He asked somberly.
Kaossandra looked down sadly. "I don't know." She said. "But i think i figured something out about this whole mess." The sorceress finished.
Hearing that got Spyro's hopes up. "Really!?" He asked eagerly. "What is it? Anything should help!"
"I'm not sure," Kaossandra began. "But I think that-" The sorceress got cut off by the sound of the Academy gates opening loudly and someone shouting "Headmistress Headmistress, we need help!"
The person shouting was Skull, alone without Hex, who seemed very agitated for some reason.
"Oh, no." Spyro flying over to Skull. "You didn't split up with Hex again did you? Because I really don't want to go through the whole "Hug zombies" thing again."
"No! We didn't split up you bonehead!" Skull yelled irritated. "Hex is in trouble! Her, Roller Brawl and Cynder are being attacked by some evil dark dragons!"
"What!?" Spyro asked desperately. "I thought these guys were after me! Where are they!?"
"C'mon, I'll take you there." Skull said. "But we need to get moving! Those dragons looked pretty mean."
"I'll come too." Kaossandra declared. "You will need as much help as you can get."
"Alright, let's go!" Spyro said, as he and Kaossandra began following Skull to their friend's rescue.
Cynder was breathing hard. She felt completely drained, and by the looks on her friends faces, so did they.
"How long until Skull gets back?" Roller Brawl asked between exhausted breaths.
"Shouldn't be long now." Hex said in an unconvincing tone.
"Well he better hurry," Cynder warned. "Because we are kind of on our last straw here."
Cynder and her friends had fought fiercely against their enemies, but they were tiered now, and the dark dragons that were getting up on the other side of the island, showed no sign of exhaustion or damage of any kind, and simply refused to stay down. Then the red eyed dragon stepped forward It's empty eyes fixated on Cynder, which made the dragoness shiver slightly. But then she composed herself, she wouldn't be frightened by this villian. Then suddenly Hex and Roller Brawl got in front of Cynder, both Skylanders in combat pose despite being hurt.
"You want to take our friend?" Hex asked sternly. "You have to go through us."
The red eyed dragon gave no response, it simply opened it's mouth and a massive column of bright yellow flames erupted, about to incinerate Cynder's friends. But before it could reach them a large purple barrier materialised in front of them, stopping the flames from reaching the Skylanders.
"Whoa…" Roller Brawl said surprised.
Then the Skylanders turned around to find their reinforcements, flying in to the rescue. Spyro, Skull and Kaossandra, who was casting the protective barrier were all coming in fast.
"Have no fear," Spyro said. "The cavalry has arrived!"
And at that Kaossandra lowered the barrier and Spyro fired a huge barrage of fireballs at the dark dragons that was followed by Kaossandra releasing a powerful chained lightning, that struck both enemies and caused them to fall back.
"Ha, ha. ha!" Skull laughed loudly. "Yeah, that's what you get! No one ruins Undead Club meetings but me buddy!
Kaossandra and Spyro landed, rushing to the wounded Skylanders. "Are you alright?" Kaossandra asked.
"We're pretty beaten up." Cynder said, wincing from a painful wound on her right foreleg. "But we should be fine."
Kaossandra nodded. Then strode forward with an intense look on her eyes and proceeded to face down the darks dragons. "Listen to me you pitch-black vermin. You better never return to my Academy, never hurt my students on my watch, and never let me see your expressionless faces again or I will show you what real dark magic looks like!" The sorceress bellowed, dark magic coursing through her arms, and a fierce expression on her face, ready to blast the dark assailants into oblivion.
The dark dragons stood in place, not seemingly intimidated by Kaossandra's fierce speech. However after a few seconds their heads and eyes began to twitch unnervingly. And suddenly stopped.
"Urgh, I hate it when they do that." Spyro said disgusted.
The red eyed dragon walked over to the blue eyed dragon, put it's wings around it's companion and, after a violent burst of ñight and flames, they were gone, a blackened crater being the only thing they left behind.
Kaossandra gave out a tired sigh, clearly exhausted from a troubling day. Then she pulled out her cell phone and dialed Hugo. "Hugo, I need medical support here immediately, we have wounded Skylanders." She paused, waiting for Hugo's response. "I'll explain when you get here, there is no time to waste!" She said angrily as she hung up.
Spyro walked over to Cynder and her friends. They all looked terrible, burns and scrapes all over their bodies. "Must have been one intense fight." Spyro thought, worried about his friend's wellbeing.
"Spyro, Cynder." Kaossandra called. "After we return to the academy and Cynder gets treated, I will need to have a talk with both of you about a something very important."
Spyro and Cynder exchanged a worried glance. This whole "new ultimate evil" thing was getting a little bit out of hand.
Back at the Skylander Academy common room, Spyro and Cynder were waiting for Kaossandra to finnish telling master Eon's ethereal form what had happened today. Cynder had been treated by Hugo for her wounds, which were mostly not dangerous, except for one nasty wound on her right foreleg, which was bandaged up.
"You're sure it doesn't hurt?" Spyro asked caringly. "It looks pretty bad."
"Yes Spyro, I'm sure." Cynder said mellowly. "I'll be back in action in no time."
Spyro smiled and gave his friend a polite little nod, relieved nothing serious happened to his friends this time.
"Skylanders." Master Eon called. "We must talk."
Spyro and Cynder turned to face Master Eon, anxious to get some answers from the portal master about the situation.
There are eight essential elements in our world." Eon began. "Water, Earth, Tech, Fire, Life, Air, Undead and Magic. Certain beings hold a connection to a certain element, as they are what this world is built upon." Eon said, pacing, or rather floating through the room as he told his little tale. "However,dragons have always had an extremely close relationship with their corresponding element, allowing them to tap into it's very essence. This power was both a wonderful blessing and a horrible curse. Because of a dragons close connection to the essential elements, they proved to be extremely valuable to dark wizards, who hunted them down and used them in horrible rituals."
Spyro cringed after hearing that. The thought of his kind being used as ingredients in some madman's crazy ritual made him sick.
"From what we can tell," Eon continued. "These dragons you have faced, are each of a different element. The ones Spyro faced were Tech and Earth, the ones Cynder faced today were Water and Fire and the one that snuck into the Academy was Life."
"So that means they're missing Undead, Magic and Wind?" Cynder asked, trying to get a grasp of the situation.
"No." Kaossandra responded. "From the way they have been acting, we think they already have six out of eight elements. That would explain why they are so intent on getting you two. You are the missing pieces to their puzzle." She said somberly.
Spyro was starting to feel more angry than afraid. He bared his fangs in frustration, showing it to everyone in the room. "So what's the deal?" he asked angrily. "What does some, brainwashing psycho need eight dragon sized batteries for?"
"There are many rituals." Kaossandra answered. "None of them are good news, and they tend to each be worse than the last. Whoever or whatever is behind all of this must be trying to get one done."
"Because of this,"Eon began. "We cannot allow either of you to leave the Academy unaccompanied, for as of now, you are both being hunted." The portal master finished in a grave tone. "Now you should return to your dormitories and get some rest. Kaossandra and I will get to working on increasing security around the Academy to prevent more incidents like this one." Eon said as he and Kaossandra walked back to the Relics Room, leaving Spyro and Cynder alone, with a grimm tone looming over them. This time the bad guys weren't trying to cause trouble. They weren't trying to steal an old book, they weren't trying to destroy the academy or get some hidden relic. No. This time, the bad guys, were after them.
The mysterious figure was sitting down on an island, fiddling with some rocks it had found nearby. It was waiting for it's "friends" to return. They were taking a while now. Then the figure looked up and saw three pitch-black dragons approaching quickly. The dragons then landed in front of the figure, their heads low, as if in reverence.
"All empty handed, huh?" The figure asked, it's quiet, slightly raspy voice slow with disappointment. "I won't hear the end of it from the boss." It said, dropping the rocks and standing up with an annoyed grunt.
"I guess I'll have to do this myself."
Author's Notes
Well this is the second chapter. More content is on it's way!
-I still don't own Skylanders Academy or its characters.
- Special thanks to: Gabriel1144 and for following, reviewing and faving my measly first chaper. Many thanks.