Tatsumi and Buzz landed at the foot of the museum entrance, where a centaur creature ran up to them with a battle horn and black traptanium lance.
"Nowhere to hide!" she said.
"So youre Knight Mare. I hear you've been tracking Nightshade." Buzz said.
"Yes. I've finally tracked him down here to the museum where he wants to see the Dark Eye of Tomorrow." Knight Mare said.
"I'm just glad I'm not at monster Marsh. Seryu and I met before she joined the Jaegers, and again when I got captured. Twice then she didnt know i was with night raid. If she saw me with them, well…" Tatsumi said.
"We understand the situation. But now, we need to keep our wits and capture Nightshade before he even takes the eye." Buzz said. "To do that, we need to stay ahead of him. To capture a thief, we gotta think like one."
"Let's see. If I were a world class thief, how would I go to stealing such an artifact? Well, guess I'd try to hide in plain sight." Tatsumi thought.
"If we avoid the original path with the spotlights to the eye and go another way, I'm sure we can get there before Nightshade ever does."
They took an alternate path with puzzles and arrived more quickly to the exhibit.
"There she is." Knight Mare said.
"The Dark Eye of Tomorrow." Buzz said as Nightshade dropped down.
"Yes. And I'll be stealing it now. Name's Nightshade by the way, best thief in all of Skylands. Ta." Nightshade said taking the eye and jumping out the stain glass window.
"After him!" Tatsumi said running after him alone and to an epicenter.
"Well well, the boy wonder of Night Raid, popular among his team. You are persistent, I give you that." Nightshade said.
"I learnt to be that way from bro. Now, give back the eye." Tatsumi said.
"Afraid not. I'm going to have to give you a bit of a drubbing. Engage." Nightshade said leaping on top of a pillar.
Nightshade!
"Normally, one shouldn't be afraid of shadows, but for this, you might want to make an exception." Nightshade said as a large eye appeared as did shadowy clones of Nightshade.
"Can you tell which one's the real me, boy? I'm over here, or is it here?"
Tatsumi attacked the clones with no luck.
"Cant attack blindly. Gotta stay focused. If I knock out the pillars, he'll come down into his clone swarm to attack. But I'll keep getting hurt by the shadows of the pillars if I don't." Tatsumi thought. "Got it! Attack the pillars, then the clones, which will weaken him."
He did so, destroying the pillars and clones repeatedly until Nightshade dropped the eye, Tatsumi reclaiming it as he knocked Nightshade back.
Nightshade Defeated!
A vortex then opened up behind Nightshade.
"Hmm. I suppose I couldn't avoid capture forever. I shall endure this capture sequence with grace and dignittttyyyyyy!" he called out as he fell into the vortex as it closed.
Tatsumi got ahold of the obsidian trap that held him as a screen appeared.
"How's it feel in there?"
"Ha! No jail can hold the great Nightshade! Well except this one, apparently." Nightshade said.
Nightshade Trapped!
"I suppose I could be persuaded to to switch sides." Nightshade said.
"Well, done compadre." Buzz said coming up. "I think somewhere above, Bulat's proud of you."
"Yeah. Made you proud, bro. Well, another Doom Raider down. That only leaves four of them." Tatsumi said.
"Let's just hope someone gets Seryu to see the light at Monster marsh, or we'll have two problems." Buzz said.
At monster marsh….
The fog rolled through vastly populated marsh of monsters and things that go bump in the night. For mabu to live here, they had to be tough, or crazy. Walking into the fog was Seryu, but she's seen better days now than after her use of JTK Final Number: Five Hell Chartakarvin Furnace to detonate herself and Koro in an attempt to get rid of Mine.
Seryu was now fused with Koro in a patchwork frankenstein mesh of her former body, wearing ragged clothing she had stolen from clothesline since she escaped from Dr. Krankcase. Her JTK weapons were inside her now, Koros face etched into her back, hidden from prying eyes.
"This was not what I was expecting Heaven to be like. This is more like….Hell." she muttered to herself as she trudged through the marsh. "I had made an honorable sacrifice for justice, and this is the thanks I get?"
Koro whimpered on her body.
"I know Koro. But look at us. Were one being now, a monster who is lost in a marsh of misery. Someone who must never be seen by human eyes." Seryu said. Suddenly, her arm beeped.
"That sound…. Number 9!"
Her arm bloated as the Justice City Detector transformed onto her arm, one blip on it.
"Yes… I know this sound. The sighting of evil has been detected!" Seryu said. "And its close by! But, all I see is a normal chest."
"With lots of teeth to eat you with." a voice said as the chest grew teeth and an evil glare.
Chomp Chest!
"No one here is more freaky than me, Eye Scream and Eye Five. Youre soiling our reputations by coming here, freakish freak. I hope you taste like chicken." Chomp Chest said munching right at her.
"Why you… Number 1!"
A mace appeared on her left arm.
"Judgement of the Ten Kings, Ball of Justice!" Seryu called out.
"What the? You actually have weapons? I can't eat that!" Chomp Chest said.
Seryu smacked chomp chest and made him skid into a tree.
Chomp Chest Defeated
Seryu retracted both weapons and walked to the location of Chomp Chest.
"Wh-what are you doing? The fight's already over!" Chomp Chest said.
"Justice must be...huh?" Seryu asked as the vortex opened.
"But I'm still hungrrrryyyyy!" he called out, disappearing through the vortex.
"Did he escape? Or did he get captured by some great force of justice?" Seryu asked.
"You sweetie, just saw a trap in action." said a voice as Seryu saw a creature with a pair of largeTraptanium scissors. "Names Short Cut, a trap master hunting down villains like him. I always…. Cut to the chase!"
"So there are heroes of Justice here like you? So why am I revived and like…"
"Don't say another word. From what I have to guess, you've been revived to help defeat the Doom Raiders and defend Skylands with your life!" Short Cut said.
"Doom… Raiders? Dr. Krankcase mentioned that same group." Seryu said.
"Not surprising. He's with the Doom Raiders too. He's their scientist. He must be stopped, but first, one of their members, the Dreamcatcher is hanging around in this marsh." Short Cut said. "Some partners of yours were already mobilized."
"Who? My fellow Jaegers? General Esdeath?" Seryu asked.
"Wait, aren't you with those Night Raid guys that have been going around and saving Skylands?" he asked.
"Night Raid?!" Seryu said.
"Yeah. They already caught five of the Doom Raiders and saved quite a bit of Skylands." Short Cut said.
"B-but, they're supposed to be…. What is my drive worth here?" Seryu pondered.
"Hey, Justice is always welcomed no matter who it comes from. Besides, there's still some more villains here. We need someone like you to help round them up." Shortcut said. "Just...stay in check. Besides, after this Doom Raider thing is over, I could see about making you a Skylander."
The two moved up and saw saw Night Raid and the others, them staring right back at the two.
Mine had her rifle ready. "This time, I'll-"
"Whoa, hold it!" Short Cut said. "She's cool!"
"Short Cut! There you are!" Wildfire said.
"I've already talked her down. She's agreed to help us defend Skylands." Short Cut said.
Seryu then walked up to the others.
"It appears that I've...misunderstood you. Was the Minister really evil?" Seryu asked.
"He was. But he's gone now. Killed the bastard myself." Leone said.
"And another thing. Tatsumi, the one the general loved, is he….here as well?" she asked.
"You, Leone, Mine and him were all revived. But there's something you should know. He…" Akame began before Mine covered her mouth.
"Is a soldier of justice like you are. He sacrificed himself for the capital and stopped the emperor when he went mad." Mine said saving it.
Leone breathed a sigh of relief. "If she knew Tatsumi was one of us, hell would break loose. So until this Doom Raider thing is over, do not tell her the truth." Leone whispered to Akane.
Mine then changed the subject. "Man, looking at you, it seems not all of us came back perfect. Where even is Koro?"
"My back. He's grafted onto my back." Seryu said.
"It could've been worse for us. Mine would've had Pumpkin literally as her arm and like you." Leone said as Mine stepped on her foot.
"Don't even joke about that!" she said.
"Bases on my scientific expertise, your dog's abilities are yours, minus the Trump Card, though. And all of your JTK weapons are inside your body." Mags said.
"I know that already. Krankcase made that very clear when he rebuilt me." Seryu said.
"Now for some payback. Let's get to the village and stop Dreamcatcher. Oh, and she's just a head." Mine said.
"All right. Onward! To stop this flying head of evil and injustice!" Seryu said.
"Sounds like someone got their drive back." Short Cut said.
Along the way, they saw the second denizen of the marsh. It was a creature with one eye and long blue hair.
Eye Scream!
"That's really freaky!" Mine said.
"It is called Monster Marsh for a reason. A lot of monsters." Kali said.
"Eye see you." Eye Scream said.
"Ah, screw it, blast it!" Leone said.
"What? You'll blast an innocent girl like myself?" Eye Scream asked.
"Youre a monster. Chomp Chest literally said you three here are the freakiest." Akame sadi,
"Fair point. Behold the power of my eye!" she said as she let out a horrifying scream.
Dozens of eyes along with a big one were launched at whatever was around.
"Oh. That's why she's called Eye Scream." Leone said.
The launched eyes from Eye Scream rammed into objects and the skylanders, but Short cut dashed past each one and went into a cutting frenzy with his scissors. He was able to rapidly cut the eyes, launch marionette strings, and use dolls in conjunction with a massive dimesnional slice to over whem Eye scream in a matter of minutes.
Eye Scream Defeated!
"If you don't put me down, I'll SCRREEEAAAAMMMM!" she called out before vanishing through the portal.
"Youre pretty skilled with those shears." Mine said.
"Tell me about it. I used to be a pretty big tailor before becoming a Skylander. My act of becoming one was sewing together the shirts and pants of all the pirates who invaded my home." Short Cut said.
"Something about those scissors reminds me of Extase." Mine said.
"Could it be because they're a pair of giant scissors?" Leone asked.
"Friend of yours wield the Shears of Creation?" Short Cut said. "Yes, I've heard of em. It's nice to hear you know about tailoring tools."
"Let's just keep moving." Seryu said.
As they moved onward, they saw the Dreamcatcher nearby. "Great. You. Thanks to you idiots, these stupid villagers are waking up and I couldn't even get anything on the Traptanium. And trust me, these guys dream of pretty weird stuff. You know what, I'm gonna get you back by unleashing some of their nightmares on you!" she said.
"I hope you dont make this hard for us to capture you, cause we got some questions that need answers." Leone said as the monsters of nightmares came into the real world.
"Ha! Doesn't matter if you catch me. I'm not telling you a thing, even in captivity." Dreamcatcher said.
"We will see about that, head of injustice!" Seryu said.
"Oh. So you're that freak girl Krankcase let escape. Well, I have someone who is just the perfect match." Dreamcatcher said.
Out of the portal came a creature with a single eye on each hand. "Talk to the hand!"
Eye-Five!
"So creepy!" Mine said.
"Well, I think I can leave everything here to them. Ta ta, Skylanders." Dreamcatcher said flying off.
Eye Five charged and pounded the ground in front of him, not looking where he was going each time.
"Aim for his back!" Akame said.
"Hey, no fair. I don't have much peripheral vision like you eye faces." Eye Five said.
"Let's just put an end to this." Leone said going behind Eye Five and giving him a punch to the back.
Eye Five Defeated!
"Hey! This is kinda fun! Wheeee!" he called out entering the vortex.
Back at the academy.
"Why do we keep coming back here after every adventure? Feels kinda weird." Chompy Mage said.
"Deal with it. We have you trapped." Akane said.
"Well, according to the Mabu there, Dreamcatcher is heading to a science lab where the secrets to Traptanium are said to be." Najenda said.
"Telescope towers, boom! First try!" Flynn said.
"How do you know about that place?" Akane asked.
"Its one of the few science labs in Skylands. It shouldn't be hard to find it. Its an observatory with a giant telescope." Buzz said.
"I dunno how we can miss it. But Cali still needs to take us." Mine said.
"Then it is settled! We shall head for Telescope Towers to defeat the evil head of injustice!" Seryu said.