Ch. 7: Blowing The Top
A craft swerved above the swamps, and it's occupant frantically scanned the waters below from the cockpit. "Come on, where is he? I can't afford to fail at this!" they exclaimed.
X
Linagarnix yawned. "Oh, waiting for the Cloudbreak Volcano to erupt is so boring,"'she moaned. "I know, right, mum?" Darkus agreed, settling himself on her lap like an overgrown cat. "There isn't even anything good on TV right now!" he added, and Linagarnix allowed herself a fond smile. "Well, I suppose we could allow ourselves a little pleasure. How about we send out your large friend and, ahem, test the mettle of that Skylander group dedicated to protecting the Cloudbreak Volcano?" she suggested, looking down at her adopted son. Darkus nodded. "Isn't it a bit early? I thought we weren't getting rid of those freaks until the day before the volcano erupted," he pointed out.
She shook her head. "If we attack them now, and tell her to take one or two of them hostage, it rattles them. They'll be scared and in shock, and probably angry too. And when someone's angry they don't think straight - who knows, if we're lucky all fifteen of them will all abandon the volcano and go looking for whoever goes missing,"
Darkus smirked. "And when they do, it'll be lights out for their precious volcano. Still, maybe sending her isn't the best idea,"
"You know how she gets when she goes too long without shedding blood. Frankly, letting her take her bloodlust out on those Swap pawns might be the best course," Linagarnix tutted.
"But if we do that then we reveal her existence too early. It'll be best to wait until we're delivering the parcel to the volcano, then the Skylanders won't know what to expect from our resident shadow dragoness. We should send Peacock," her dragon son argued, and the Dark Portal Master nodded. "Peacock isn't very bright, though," she frowned. "He might forget to take a hostage,"
"So we let Mesmeralda go with him to pull his strings. Look, it's Peacock and Mesmeralda or Mr. Vampire Cat's Arkeyan monstrosity - and I'd honestly rather keep our ace in the hole where the Skylanders can't see it," Darkus snorted. "Very well, dear. I trust you can brief them on the mission?" his mother requested. "Oh, trust me, I'll make sure they understand," Darkus smirked.
X
Spyro thrashed in the water. "Hey! Help! Someone get me out of the water! I can't swim!" the dragon shouted, panicking. Frantically, he tried to grab at a plank of wood, but it fell to pieces in his hands. "This is what you get for building a town out of driftwood!" he raged at Gillmen in general.
"Spyro?" a familiar voice exclaimed. "Is that . . . ?" Spyro paused, which he immediately regretted as he began to sink, and continued to thrash and snatch at anything within reach, closing his eyes to keep the dirty water out of them.
A loud splash alerted him to someone else arriving and strong arms snatched up his wiry, thin frame and flung him to shore. Spyro winced as he hit the ground, raised his forelegs and wiped the muck from his eyes. A firm hand clapped him on the back, and he winced as he looked up at Terrafin's maw. "Good to see ya, bud," the shark nodded. "Terrafin. Nice to see you're still alive," Spyro smirked. "This boxer's aways ready to go another round and don't you forget it!" Terrafin glared, a smile playing at the edges of his lips.
"Good to have the backup . . . ," Spyro trailed off. "Do you ever get the feeling like you're being watched?"
Several metres behind them, a silhouetted, hidden figure's eyes widened as they heard this and ducked into a doorway.
"Eh, sometimes. Usually I beat the snot out of some evil guys and the feeling goes away," Terrafin shrugged. Spyro matched his expression. "Probably. Still . . . ," On impulse he looked around. "That jetty didn't collapse for no reason," he frowned, searching for their unknown aggressor.
"Er, Spyro, what's that?" Terrafin sweatdropped, looking up into the sky. Spyro's expression rapidly mirrored his own at the thought of something else happening to them. Some kind of craft was slowly descending from the heavens, and Spyro's face lit up in eagerness as he breathed a sigh of relief. "You weren't here when we went to Arkus, were you?" he asked, curious. "Nope?" Terrafin frowned, wondering where Spyro was going with this.
"That's Flynn's Arkeyan Copter!" Spyro grinned. "The others must have sent it to pick us up!" he continued, and Terrafin cracked a grin as the copter landed in the middle of the plaza.
The cockpit swung open and glowing blue eyes peered out at the two Skylanders. "Oh, uh, heh . . . you're Spyro, right? The guy who's supposed to be my mentor . . . . right?" Star Strike asked, nervous beyond belief.
"Who the bloody hell are you?" Terrafin frowned. Spyro cuffed his waist with his forepaw. "She's one of Cali's rookies, you big lug!"
X
"Uh, excuse me? Mrs. Skylander trainer woman?" Cali looked up from her notes to see a young kitsune peering anxiously over the desk she was working on, flicjing her tail ansent-mindedly. "Oh, uh, who are you?" Cali asked politely.
"Name's Tessa. I'm the Chieftess' granddaughter and one of her closest advisors," the fox girl brightly grinned. "So, uh, she asked me to ask you if you could send a team of Skylanders to take care of a problem that's sprung up in the eastern section of Cloudbreak,"
"Problem, huh? Well, lay it on me, fox girl, because the BOOM is back in action!" a cocky, confident voice interrupted the two girls and Cali groaned. "You know, I really hoped he'd stay unconscious a little while longer," she muttered to herself.
Tessa looked over, curious, to see a barrel-chested, tall Mabu dressed in a pilot's jacket, navigation goggles and a red scarf. "The name's Captain Flynn," the Mabu struck a pose, hands on hips and front foot on a small stack of books. "And I'm the real hero 'round these parts," he winked.
"Oh, brother," Cali facepalmed, but Tessa was enthralled. "Are you one of the Skylanders? she asked, her eyes wide and tail quivering in excitement. "Nope. But I'm probably even better. Who do you think gets the Skylanders where they need to go during a crisis?"
"Our Portal Masters?" Cali skeptically remarked. The pilot, though, had paused, thinking. "Aren't you the one who made me fly my ship into that volcano?" he commented, squinting at the kitsune's face. Tessa's eyes somehow widened even further. "You were flying that? That's incredible! Those Greebles were all like, 'We're gonna get you now!' And you were just like, 'No way, jose! Boom! Ka-blam! Eat my dust, suckers!" she pantomimed, grinning in crazed excitement.
Flynn grinned but tried - and failed - to be modest. "Well, the Skylanders helped too - I mean, of course, I did most of the work, but they deserve at least five percent of the credit," he shrugged amicably. Cali muttered to herself darkly. "No way, all they did was beat up boarders. They only get three percent," Tessa retorted with a smirk. Flynn's grin grew wider. "Finally, someone who really gets me!" he grinned, raising nis palm for a high-five. Tessa accepted eagerly, and two furry palms slapped against each other.
"So, what's this big crisis? I'm sure I can handle it," Flynn confidently smirked. "A tribe of Amazoness trolls have invaded Fantasm Forest and we need to drive them off!" Tessa explained.
"No problem . . . ." Flynn trailed off in confusion as the full implications of this sunk in. "Wait . . . . there are female trolls?"
X
"Hey! Hey Spy Rise! What do you get when you cross the Queen of Clubs with a footballer?" Freeze Blade giggled. The Tech Swapper moaned. "I don't know, and I don't really care either," he retorted.
"I don't know, Freeze Blade. What do you get when you cross the Queen of Clubs with a footballer?" Boom Jet smirked. "A playing card!" Freeze Blade exclaimed, and they both burst into fits of laughter. "Ooh, ooh, I got another one!" Boom Jet added and Spy Rise groaned. "What do you get when you cross the Queen of Clubs with, the referee?" Boom Jet asked in excitement.
"I don't know, Boom Jet, what do you get when you cross the Queen of Clubs with the referee?" Freeze Blade asked, curious. "A red card!" Boom Jet replied, and the two Swap Force Skylanders fell about laughing again. "But the Queen of Clubs is black," Spy Rise moaned.
"That sounds kinda racist," a firm hand clapped him on the shoulder, and Spy Rise turned to see Grilla Drilla with a wry smile on his face. "You have to admit, it's kinda cute how immature they always are," he pointed out.
"You also have to admit it's kinda annoying!" Spy Rise exclaimed in addition, glaring at his teammates. "We're supposed to be here on a mission, not to laugh and giggle like - like rookie schoolgirls! he exclaimed in exasperation.
He felt a hand on his shoulder and looked to see Boom Jet nodding in agreement. "You're right. We're on a mission. We should be focusing," Spy Rise was surprised. He never would have expected this from Boom Jet of all people. The Skysurfer was usually first to laugh at whatever gag Freeze Blade concocted. "How about this. You get up into those trees, look around and stretch out that web. Because you really need to get that stuck-up pole out of your butt!" he exclaimed, bursting out laughing, and was rapidly joined by Freeze Blade. Grilla Drilla tried to refrain but couldn't help chuckling.
Spy Rise slapped Boom Jet's hand away. "Fine, I see how it is. Excuse me for being the only one who gives a damn that people could be dying because of whatever this alert was caused by. I guess I'll just sit in a tree and save the day while you all laugh at me and my posterior!" he exploded, a seething maelstrom of bitterness. The Spyder smirked at the fact that his teammates had been stunned into silence, before firing his grappling gun into the canopy of the trees above and grappling away.
Boom Jet gazed after Spy Rose in shock, before looking at Grilla Drilla. "Dude, I think you broke him," he whispered in shock.
Spy Rise seethed as he perched on a branch, glaring down at his fellow SWAP Force Skylanders. "I'm sick of it," he moaned, turning away and looking up at the sky. "I suppose I should see if anyone's around that might attack us," the Swapper sighed, clapping a hand to his head. "I mean, me or them," he corrected himself.
Flicking down his visor, he scanned the surrounding skies. "Hot-air balloon, island, airship, dragon, airship, island, pirate ship," he muttered to himself out loud as he saw the items.
"Nothing out of the ordinary," he finally decided, flicking his visor back onto his forehead. "Light, how to get back to the others?" he paused, squinting down into the canopy beneath him - when he heard the distinctive 'crack' of a tree falling in the forest. "What was that?" Spy Rise questioned, glaring towards the offending tree, which had collapsed to the ground. But, as another tree was knocked to the ground by the roots, a hole was cleared in the foliage enough for Spy Rise to get a look at the offending jumberjack.
And, not too far away, a pair of reptilian eyes narrowed and a tongue licked scaly lips. "Peacock," a voice hissed in grim satisfaction.
A/N
A/N
I have decided to start trying to respond to reviews, so here goes.
FYI, LiteFox, I can see why you thought the codenames might relate to the Swappies. Miasma could easily mean Stink Bomb, Thunderstorm could be Free Ranger, and Smasher could be Rubble Rouser . . . I confirm or deny nothing, but emphasise the COULD. But there are a couple of little hinters in the chapter that you might have missed . . . . Keep all the eyes you want on me, it won't make any difference. But notice how neither Free Ranger, Stink Bomb or Rubble Rouser were present when Spy Rise blew his top.
Samjax, I fully intend to keep it getting better. I did recently change the genres from Adventure/Mystery to Mystery/Humour - mostly because I realised there's not much adventure but humour will likely be commonplace - so, yeah. :)
Best OC Maker, I don't know how much you know about dragon flight but for Spyro to take off he would have needed to jump up - which I doubt anyone can do without solid ground to stand on - and be able to extend his wings and straighten out his tail. There was collapsing wood all around him, he didn't have enough room to take off.
Sparkbutt, where the hell are you? XD
FYI, everyone, the Swappers are mostly minor characters - at present, nothing is set in stone - and I really don't want to spend ages fleshing out their characters anyway. So, if you've read LiteFox' Trek - which is epic, BTW - just think of the Swappers here as being essentially the same as they are there.
Next chapter, we have a cameo approaching from a certain character from Trap Team. Brownie points if anyone can guess who!
And I added the part where Tessa meets Flynn properly after realising that this chapter was a little short, plus I was talking to 'the infamous Julie' and, another friend of mine who goes by TSC-002 (or 'Tisk') online, about why we've never seen a female troll. So my psycho bestie cane up with the idea that there's a troublesome tribe of Amazoness trolls somewhere in Skylands, and . . . . . I just had to use that! Plus, Flessa FTW! XD
Also, I noticed I forgot to add a small passage to the end of the previous chapter about Terrafin celebrating being able to ditch Gurglefin, so, go check that out if you feel like it.
Next chapter - yes, out of boredom and interest, another new thing I have decided to try is revealing the demo name of the next chapter in the Author's Note ipof every chapter I post. Keep in mind that these are subject to change as I write and there are no guarantees that what I reveal here will be in any way accurate. Anyhoo. Next chapter; Crock and Roll!
Peace! And goodnight - seriously, it's 10pm here as I write this. I'll upload it in the morning, night Skylands!