Ch. 2: Bigger Problems

"Sir?" Cali spoke into an ancient Arkeyan communicator. A few seconds later, background noise began as a connection was established. "Cali? What are you doing? Why are you calling me directly? This had better be important," a wizened-sounding voice of an elderly male echoed through the speaker. "Er, sir? Remember him? The insurgent?"

"Yes, how could I forget? It can't be because he and his followers are the only thing in the universe that pose any threat to me whatsoever, definitely not that he turned my own daughter against me, and it most certainly can't be because he stole my most treasured possession to boot! So tell me, how could I have forgotten him?"

Cali gulped. "Er, sir, he isn't your only threat. What about Kaos?"

"Please, Cali, the only thing that that bald nutjob is a danger to is himself. He was so pathetic that a robot programmed to follow his every command betrayed him. Do you really think he poses a threat to someone like me? Now, why did you call?"

"You know Spyro? The purple dragon who joined the -"

"Yes, yes, the current leader of the Cores, what about him?"

"It appears your agents weren't as successful at erasing every trace of the insurgent from the palace as we thought. I don't know how or where, but he found a fragment of the insurgent's journal. It didn't tell him anything important, nothing that made him suspicious, but it was enough to arouse his curiosity. And he intended to ask Chop Chop for more information,"

"What?!" the voice growled. "Oh no. If that dragon somehow joins enough of the dots, finds out the truth and joins that bastard, we're all in trouble. The two of them working together? They might erase all of my hard work! You need to make sure that that dragon remains utterly clueless about the fiasco that that experiment turned into!" With that, the other end of the line went dead. Cali gulped.

X

A phone rang in Chop Chop's house. Spyro and Terrafin could hear it through the obviously-not soundproof door.

Cell phones were a very recent invention in Skylands. The Earthen Portal Masters working with the Skylanders had brought theirs when they moved to Skylands, but upon their discovery that due to the absence of a telephone network they were all but useless, had turned them over to Drobot and Sprocket. A couple of months later, they were being mass-produced and spread throughout Skylands as the best thing since hot buttered toast. It had quickly become one of the few rules the Skylanders as an organisation had that all active Skylanders had to carry a phone at all times. The Skylanders themselves, of course, hardly complained, the innovation had made it far easier to stay in contact.

"Greetings," Chop Chop greeted the caller. A small pause while whoever was on the other end of the line continued. "I see. I will be there immediately,"

A second later, the door swung open, the Arkeyan strode out, closed and locked the door behind him. "You two should return to the Palace. There is a situation that demands the attention of all three of us," Chop Chop instructed the other two, before purposefully striding away.

A second later, Terrafin's own phone rang. "Yeah?" the shark greeted the caller. "Say what? Hang on, I'm with Spyro, I'll put you on speaker,"

Terrafin pressed a button. "Hey! It's Brock! Spyro, can you hear me?"

Spyro opened his mouth to respond, but the phone shouted at him. "WRONG!"

"Actually, Brock, I can hear you," Spyro pointed out. "Sure you can. Anyway, apparently that annoying pilot guy flew into a volcano and called for back-up. Cali got me to help call everyone. Get over to the Core of Light!" Brock commanded. Terrafin was about to hang up, but then Brock shouted, "WRONG! You should already be there!"

Terrafin ended the call. "He annoys me so much," the shark grumbled.

"Sounds like Flynn's in trouble," Spyro frowned. "Please. He only flew into a volcano. You know what Flynn's like, he'll come out without a scratch," Terrafin snorted, and Spyro nodded, conceding the point, before looking back at the bunker. "Chop Chop left my paper in there," the dragon growled.

His sharky companion snorted, rolling his eyes. "Gimme a second, I'll get it," he told Spyro, putting his knuckledusters back on.

This time, the blow was sufficient to punch through the damaged door. The metal made a satisfying thunk as it landed on the interior of the door, and Terrafin barged in. "Here ya go," the shark snatched the parchment off a table and handed it to Spyro, who was still outside the door. "Chop Chop will be so pissed off," Terrafin smirked self-satisfiedly.

"And that's a good thing?" Spyro cocked his head and raised a curious eyebrow.

"Eh. Old coot can't stand me anyway," Terrafin shrugged it off, and Spyro nodded, conceding the point. "Besides, not like it's the first time I've punched that door down,"

X

The two arrived back at the Palace to find a line-up of some of the most experienced Skylanders in the ranks awaiting them. "Hey, Spyro!" Trigger Happy enthusiastically waved to his friend. "Greetings," Stealth Elf nodded to Terrafin, who shot her the peace symbol. "What took you so long?" Chop Chop questioned, before spotting the piece of paper Spyro was still holding. The skeleton strode up to Spyro, bent down a little, and told the dragon, "I tell you this as a friend, not a subordinate. You're digging your own grave by pursuing this matter. Don't say I didn't warn you when you're being buried in it. I've been around the block more than everyone else you know put together. Trust me when I say that forgetting this matter is for your own good,"

With that, the robot walked away and, looking around, Spyro spotted a certain dragoness. "Ah, hey, Cynder," he nervously smiled, sitting on his haunches next to her.

Cali ran up towards the assembled Skylanders before they could strike up a proper conversation. "What was yah reason for calling us ahll here? It don't take sixteen Skylanders tah rescue Flynn," Prism Break questioned in his Colonial American accent.

"Well, two reasons actually. First off, you all know that the Cloudbreak Volcano is going to erupt soon, and there's been a lot of debate about who the lucky sixteen Skylanders who will be picked to be the Cloudbreak Skylanders, two of each element, this year?" Cali smiled.

it was a long-running tradition. When the Cloudbreak Volcano erupted every 100 years to replenish all the magic in Skylands, the two most proficient Skylanders from each of he eight elements were chosen as guards, known as the Cloudbreak Skylanders, and given the great and ceremonious honour of protecting the Volcano from evil.

Spyro quickly counted it up. Yep, there were two Skylanders present from each element. "So we're the lucky ones who've been picked, eh?" Sprocket questioned, hiding her excitement by fiddling with her goggles. Cali nodded confirmation, and several of the asswmbled Skylanders cheered. "So that thing about Flynn flying into a volcano was just a ruse to get us all here?" Camo chuckled. "Couldn't have pulled a better one myself,"

Cali looked uncomfortable. "That's the thing, Flynn really did fly into a volcano, so you all need to leave for Cloudbreak early to help him out. Which brings me to my third and final piece of news," Cali whistled through her teeth, nervous about what she had to say next. "Yeah?" Terrafin raised an eyebrow. "I've decided that each of you should mentor one of my most promising Skylander trainees for the duration of your stay at Cloudbreak. I've selected two from each element and paired them up how I think most appropriate,"

"I will teach my trainee all that I know," Chop Chop nodded. The other responses were more mixed. "Always wanted an assistant," Sprocket smirked, cracking her knuckles. "What? You can't do this! I don't wanna lug some rookie around everywhere I go!" Terrafin madly protested. Stealth Elf thought fir a second, then shrugged. "As long as they don't get in my way,"

"Awesome! My own personal partner in crime! Yehahahahahaha!" Trigger Happy laughed, and Jet-Vac nodded in approval of the situation. This was not shared by Hot Dog. "What? Why? How am I supposed to teach anyone anything?"

"He has a point. Watch this," Pop Fizz sniggered, pulling out an orange potion. "Fetch!" he commanded, throwing the potion into the air. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!" Hot Dog gushed, rushing after the potion. The lava dog jumped up and snatched the potion in his jaws, only for it to blow up in his face. Whimpering, he ran to Eruptor and cowered behind the lava golem.

Cali winced. "Maybe he wasn't the best choice," she muttered.

"Wait. Flynn's on vacstion, and he took the Dread-Yacht with him. And Cloudbreak has a protective barrier that prevents use of portals. How will we get there?" Spyro realised,

Cali smirked. "Sprocket can answer that,"

Sprocket cocked an eyebrow, smiling. "I was wondering when we were going to showcase that new feature,"

"Er, what new feature?" Terrafin questioned. "Remember we built a new Skylander quarters block recently?" Sprocket smiled.

Everyone remembered that. The new quarters consisted of an eight-storey-tall circle, compartmentalised with a total of two hundred and sixty-four almost-identical small suites, one for each Skylander. Skylanders such as Chop Chop who had alternate living arrangements refused to use it as anything more than storage, but the majority of them enjoyed the relatively spacious quarters. It had started out bleak and depressing, but as each Skylander had personalised their area it had become a myriad patchwork of colours, with only the uninhabited parts retaining their original appearance.

"We carefully designed and modified each individual apartment to function as independent minor aircraft. For occasions when portals are inadequate, and so that you can bring all the luxuries of home with you on missions," Sprocket explained.

Prism Break scratched his head. "Huh?"

Sprocket sighed. "Your rooms turn into planes," she dumbed it down.

"Awesome! Trigger Happy! Taking to the sky! Let's go!" the gremlin laughed, firing his guns into the air in celebration. "Why didn't you tell us about this sooner?" Camo demanded.

"That's why," Cali explained,mgesturing at Trigger Happy, who was running in the direction of the living quarters as fast as his stumpy little legs could take him. Camo nodded, admitting the point, as the sixteen Skylanders set off, following Trigger Happy.

X

Spyro surveyed his rooms. A quarter of the area, to the back-left of the door, which was in the back-right, was blocked off, which functioned as the bathroom, containing a toilet and a bath, and the rest was open space. There was a blanket-lined den opposite from the bathroom, and above it were several shelves of Spyro's favourite books. Along from that were framed commemorative photos of his past adventures. There were also doors in the side walls and hatches in the floor and ceiling, the latter of which had a retractable ladder hanging from it. Spyro had tried opening these, but they only lead to pipes and tanks, so he assumed they were for maintenance. Finally, there was a wall-length window with a reinforced glass door that lead to a small balcony, and this was mostly taken up with flowerboxes. There was also a small stove and a fridge in the corner, near the door.

A new addition, though, was to the wall-length window that ran along the side of the room facing the outer edge. The row of large flowerboxes on the far side of that window had been emptied out. Now the panelling of the wall underneath the window had peeled back, and a slanted dashboard had been revealed. Peering into the window, it turned out that the flowerboxes had been the containment for this hidden array.

"Attention all Skylanders about to leave for Cloudbreak," Sprocket's voice echoed throughout Spyro's room. "This is the inter-room intercom. It has been designed to automatically connect to all units within range," Spyro nodded, understanding, as he found a small speaker underneath a dashboard. "I must warn you all, these crafts are equipped with signal flares but no weaponry, so if you come under attack your best bet is to turn and run. Finally, I would like to explain the annex feature to you all. I am certain you have all noticed the seemingly pointless hatches and doors in your rooms? Those are designed so that these crafts can connect with each other mid-flight and allow one person to fly for all crafts while others rest. The controls are simple, and there is an in-built GPS so you should have no trouble finding your way to Cloudbreak. See you all there," Sprocket explained, and background noise indicated she had taken off.

"Er, Spyro?" Cynder's voice attracted his attention as he carefully eased the craft out of it's position. He was on the fourth floor, and Cynder had the room right next to his. "Would you mind doing that annex thing with my craft? I doubt anyone else would want to,"

Spyro smiled. "Sure. Get on top of me and we'll see if we can connect these," he responded to his girlfriend, who was being a lot faster about getting her craft out of the grid than he was.

"Oh, the innuendos," Camo chuckled. "See ya!" he shouted, and Spyro noticed a second-floor craft rocket out of it's bracket to his right. "I'm gonna go visit my girlfriend - I'll be late!" the plant dragon added. "Pssh, like that punk has a girlfriend," Terrafin snorted, and Spyro spotted his craft carefully moving towards his as Cynder carefully aligned hers atop his. The hatch in his roof slid open and the ladder dropped down, and Cynder's violet head came through it a few seconds later. "Hey," she greeted her boyfriend. Spyro nodded to her.

"Sadly, he's telling the truth," Stealth Elf sighed through the mike. "He began dating an ankylosaurus a couple of months ago. I'm surprised you haven't heard. He can't shut up about it,"

"Eh, I just take it for granted that everything he says is rubbish," Terrafin shrugged. "Hey, Spyro! Spyro! Can I connect my house to yours?" Hot Dog enthusiastically asked. "I think that's a good idea. He'll probably forget where we're going," Sprocket advised. Spyro sighed, there went any hope of alone time with his girlfriend. "Alright, connect behind me," he allowed.

Within seconds, the fire pup's craft was connected to the rear of Spyro's craft - Hot Dog's balcony folded downwards and the door that lead to it was connected to the door in Spyro's room that would normally have lead out into the corridor. The doors swung open. "Hi, Spyro!" Hot Dig yipped from the room that was now behind Spyro's. "Anyone else wanna connect?" Spyro sighed in resignation. "Sure," Terrafin nodded. "I'll take that," Gill Grunt agreed. "No t'anks, me, Sprocket and Steal't El't are forming a girls group," Chill responded. "Can I join?" The purple dragon heard Whirlwind ask as the doors on either side of Spyro's room slid open, Terrafin's on his left and Gill Grunt on his right.

"And I'm gonna go rob a bank! Yehahahahaha!" Trigger Happy shouted. "You're joking, right?" Speocket asked in concern. "Er, sure. Heh,"

"A boys club, is it? Allow me to offer my assistance as group chauffeur," Jet-Vac offered the rapidly forming group centred around Spyro. "I'm here too!" Cynder shouted. "Like I said, a boys club?" Jet-Vac retorted. "Hey, you aren't joining anyone here if you're not willing to put up with Cynder," Spyro growled.

"It would be good having someone to pilot for the lot of us," Terrafin pointed out to Spyro, having joined the dragon in his room. "I am not putting up with anyone who will not tolerate Cynder," Spyro adamantly repeated.

"I'll fly with you, birdy," Pop Fizz offered Jet-Vac. "Thank you. Nice to see someone has some taste," Jet-Vac snorted, as the alchemist attached his craft to the front of Jet-Vac's. "I want to come with," Eruptor insisted on joining them both. "Er, thanks for the offer, old chap, but I think I'm fine with just Pop Fizz for company," the avian Skylander nervously responded.

"I will pilot for your team, sir. I will connect with Terrafin's room," Chop Chop told Spyro. "I'm cool with that," Terrafin shrugged.

"Whoa, old chap, what are you doing?" Jet-Vac suddenly demanded. "You need to learn to put up with Cynder!" Pop Fizz told him and carefully, yet rapidly, before Jet-Vac could stop him or disconnect, backed the two craft up to Cynder's room and forced a connection between Jet-Vac's stern and Cynder's front. "In accordance with the new situation, I will now connect to the bottom of Pop Fizz's room to increase aerodynamics. Are there any objections?" Chop Chop reported. No one said anything, so the skeleton connected to the appropriate hatch at the bottom of Pop Fizz' room, making a total of eight. Half of the Skylanders going to Cloudbreak had now connected to Spyro's room or adjoining ones.

"Nice move, Pop Fizz!" Spyro complimented his fellow Magic Element Skylander.

"We should get moving. We do not want to be late," the Undead Arkeyan declared, kicking in the thrusters and getting the ship going.

"What about me? There's no one left," Eruptor sighed, resigning himself to a lonely few days.

X

"What?" Prism Break, breaking the fourth wall, glared at the reader. "Ah ain't crazy enougn to link up with any of them. Can yeh honestly tell me ya WANT to be stuck in a room with even one o'them for roundabouts three days? First chance, ah was outta there. And nu-uh, ah ain't making a habit o'doing this breakin' dah fourth wall stuff. Just figured y'all deserved an explanation where ah was,"

A/N

A/N

Okay, the chapter was going to be longer, but I decided that it was getting long enough, and decided to start the third chapter after lift-off. Also, I want to get a bit of a vote running.

Who should join me in the Author's Notes for now? You can vote on;

A: Our old phoenix friend Gaiphe.

B: Everyone's favourite alpine kitsune, Julie.

C: The maniac from original DC canon and eventually DCR (Dragon Chronicles Revamped) canon too, Shadeblazer.

D: My twin sister, Ala (aka Solar)

Tell me your choices in a review! You'll see whoever the most people voted for in the next chapter.

Also, apologies if anyone feels like hating on the 'apartmentcraft' thing. I just needed some way for the Skylanders to reach Cloudbreak, and since Tails is no longer here to pull random flying pirate ships out of thin air, I figured, hey, what the hell. It's never going to be a massive plot point anyway, so, why not?

Also, NO characters I have mentioned or involved in any way yet, however vaguely, are OCs. The mysterious person Cali was talking to at the start of the chapter and their 'stolen' daughter are BOTH canon characters. I will give a HUGE prize to anyone who can figure out who either of them are. Let the fruitless guessing begin!

I miss the virtuality portal already. XD It was terrible for plot, and probably single-handedly killed the original Dragon Chronicles, but it was fun being able to pull whatever I wanted out of video games whenever I felt like it. XD Peace!