Ch. 10: Power to the Pilots!
"Is everyone here?" Sprocket asked the assembled crowd of assembled Skylanders and rookies. The milling crowd ignored her.
"Who's he?" Camo smirked. "This is Slobber Tooth, my, uh, trainee," Terrafin winced. "Yah," Slobber Tooth grinned, the dinosaur-like turtle showing a mouthful of fangs. "I'm hungry!"
"Here, try this!" Camo smirked, causing a watermelon to sprout from the ground. "Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, looks delicious!" Slobber Tooth enthusiastically grinned, opening his mouth impossibly wide and swallowing the melon whole. Camo blinked in confusion. "But I didn't even get to make it explode!" he protested weakly.
"ATTEN-SHUN!" Cali declared. Her voice shocked the thirty-two assembled Cores and they all immediately looked towards her. "Alright, now that everyone's here!" she shouted in frustration. "And mah gods, it took y'all long enough," Prism Break muttered to himself. "You can say that again," Stealth Elf nodded next to him.
"Alright. I'll let Sprocket explain the plan," Cali motioned for the Golding to take her place at the head of the crowd. Sprocket complied, lugging a projector screen with her. She positioned it in front of the crowd and switched it on, which caused it to display a map of the Cloudbreak Islands.
"As you can see, the Cloudbreak Islands are split into four sections. The Eastern Forests, where we are now," Sprocket indicated the section to the right of the roughly circular map, which was coloured a bright green, "The Southern Swamps," which were depicted in watery, mossy green, "The Western Deserts," Sprocket pointed her stick at the brown-and-beige section in the left part of the map, "And the Northern Mountains," She finally gestured to the top section in white. "Each of the four sections is home to one of the four Ancient Elementals," Sprocket continued, and four figures appeared on the map. A plant-like dryad for the east, a large fish for the south, some kind of squid monster for the west and what almost looked like a giant flying squirrel for the north. "Welcome to Skylands," Spyro chuckled, thinking back to his visit to the Oracle a couple of years ago. "Where our gods are interdimensional slug octopi and giant flying squirrels,"
"We'll split into four groups of eight," Cali explained. "Each of the sections of Cloudbreak are attuned to two of the eight elements. That means that the Skylanders of the matching two elements will guard each one of the Ancients. Life and Fire," The Mabu trainer gestured to the eight Skylanders of those elements. Hot Dog panted in excitement and Smolderdash, his trainee, sighed with a small smile. "You're staying here in the east,"
"Hell yeah!" The other Fire-element trainee, an ex-biker rhinoceros turned good named Fryno, shouted. "I am pumped for this!"
"Water and Undead, you lot are going to the swamps," Cali continued as though she had not been interrupted with little more than a cursory glance of irritation. Chop Chop saluted, and Grim Creeper, standing behind him, smiled. "Earth, Tech? We're headed west to the deserts," Sprocket smirked, then realised what she had just said. "Deserts? Oh no," she trailed off. "Which means Magic and Air are going north to the mountains. I think you'll be a fan of that, Whirlwind. Some old friends have been dying to see you,"
Whirlwind blinked snd looked at her. "The north of Cloudbreal - you mean we're going to Winter Keep?" she asked in a flurry of excitement, fluffy white clouds forming out of nowhere above her in her excitement. "You mean the old tower with the fawning elves that built a statue of you in your honour a few years back?" Jet-Vac snorted. "Fabulous, another reason for you to have a swelled ego as big as your freakishly large wings,"
Whirlwind glared at him, and the peaceful clouds directly above her suddenly formed into a swirling, blackened funnel. An arcing bolt of lightning shot from the tip of the funnel and hit Jet-Vac's vacuum equipment. The bird screeched in shock from the pain arcing through the chrome and into the thick skin of his claw as the steady, whisper-quiet hum of the motors inside slowed and died. "Now look what you did, you hybrid misfit!" the Sky Baron growled.
Stealth Elf gasped. Prism Break's jaw dropped. Spyro's eyebrows went down into a disgusted snarl, and Pop Fizz snatched an ugly, sickly-looking green potion from his pack and began to shake it with an incendiary scowl. Whirlwind's eyes went wide in shock and anguish. A single tear slid down her lightly furred cheek and with an upset sniff she stretched a large, feathered wing across her face and turned away, running off towards the docking bay set up with the surviving room crafts.
Spyro and Scratch immediately dashed after their fellow quadruped, and after a moment's hesitation, Cynder followed her boyfriend.
"Well, I don't know what's got her feathers in a fix," Jet-Vac snorted. "Why are you all looking at me like that?" he asked, registering twenty-seven angry faces glaring at him. "That was mean, Jet Stream. But I'm sure if you say sorry it'll all be a-okay!" Pop Thorn enthusiastically smiled, pressing hinself against his mentor's leg and hip like an overenthusiastic cat. Sprocket cruelly smirked as she took a picture of Jet-Vac's stunned expression. "That's going on the wall - and don't say a word, you deserve it after pulling a stunt like that!" she snapped as Jet-Vac opened his beak to respond.
X
"Good to hear from ya, S-" The voice on the walkie-talkie was immediately hushed by the caller. "Shut up! Don't say my name on an open line! Codenames only, remember, Miasma? It's Edge on here, okay?" They demanded in irritation.
"You're right. Sorry," Miasma responded. "I got word from Smasher. He's been keeping tabs on the Cloudbreak Skylanders that came to this backwoods cluster of islands. Making sure they won't get in our way. One of them's acting suspicious, though," Edge commented, the frown evident in their voice. "Which one? I can sneak in and ask a few questions," Miasma suggested in excitement. "No! If he sees you and tells anyone, our plan'll be in shambles! Still," Edge thought for a contemplative second. "Alright. Sneak in and see if you can find anyone, but don't blow your cover! The Cores are all splitting up tomorrow. You ain't got much time!"
"Don't worry," Miasma smirked. "I'll get a friend of ours to make sure there's plenty of cloud cover. No one's gonna see me in the gloom,"
X
"Ai-ai-ai, Sharpfin, mi amigo, que pasa? What's going on up there?" a voice echoed from below decks. "Who's that?" Tessa frowned, glaring at Sharpfin. "The only other person on this old pile of scrap," he sighed, waving a hand in irritation. "A friend of mine who's in a bit of trouble, so I'm giving him a lift," he added as a slim figure appeared from the door that led to below the deck. He was clad in a black-and-red jumpsuit with cowboy boots - they even had spurs on the back - and a white mask with exaggerated red eyes that looked almost festive. A red sombrero was slung over his back and he loosely, casually, carried a large golden horn in his hand. "Ah, hola," he smiled and greeted Flynn and Tessa with a clear Spanish accent. "Me llamo Fiesta, et tu?"
Flynn and Tessa shared a curious glance. Finding the other equally clueless, they simultaneously frowned, "Huh?"
Sharpfin surreptitiously nudged the character. "Fiesta. The common tongue, if ya will,"
"Ah, si, si - I mean yes, yes, yes. Hello, my friends, I am Fiesta. You are?" he asked, gesturing with his hands.
"Ah, I'm Flynn, the most awesome pilot in all of Skylands," Fkynn inteoduced himself with a smile. "Flynn? As in, EL Capitano Flynn? Oh my goodness, I am meeting a celebrity! My friend talks about you all the time, she is a hu-u-uge fan of yours!" Fiesta smiled exuberantly, spreading his arms wide for emphasis. "And I'm Tessa," Tessa nodded, looking at Flynn with newfound admiration at the mention of Fiesta's friend.
"Oh good, good," Fiesta broadly smiled, dashing forwards with a curious musical gait, dashing forwards, snatching the Mabu and kitsune's wrists and dragging them towards Sharpfin. "Tessa, this is mi hombre, Sharpfin. Sharpfin, this is mi hermana, Tessa," He promptly forced their hands together and they nervously shook. "Flynn, this mi hombre, Sharpfin. Sharpfin, this is Flynn, El Capitano," He repeated the procedure, and as Flynn shook the Dirt Shark's hand, he looked up towards the sky and fingered his chin. "El Capitano, huh? I like that," he smiled, shaking Sharpfin's claw with newfound vigour. "And Flynn, this is mi hermana, Tessa. Tessa, this is Flynn, El Capitano,"
"We've met," Tessa assured Fiesta, but not wanting to disappoint the infectiously enthusiastic party ghoul, she shook her friend's hand anyway. "Bien, bien, we've all met now. We are all brothers and sisters, mi amigos," Fiesta smiled. "Aaahhh," Tessa nervously exhaled, hoping to avoid disagreement.
The crackle of static interrupted Fiesta, and Sharpfin called it out. "Hate to interrupt the love-fest, but we've got their attention," he reported, jabbing a thumb in the direction of the troll camp.
"Hello civilians! What the hell are you doing?" a malign voice commanded over the intercom.
"It's the amazoness trolls!" Flynn whispered in shock. "Not to worry, my friends, I can take care of this," Fiesta grinned, moving over to the intercom and raising the microphone. "Ah, hello, hello. My deepest apologies for the disturbance, but we have run out of fuel and we were hoping that you could resupply us,"
"Do we look like a charity to you? Beat it, losers!" the troll hissed.
"We will, of course, pay you for your trouble. And you should know that, like all the Undead, I am filthy rich," Fiesta slyly smiled, and there was indistinct chatter on the other end of the line, before the response came. "Alright then, pull in and dock. But leave all weapons on board when you disembark, agreed?"
"Agreed," Fiesta nodded, and the line went dead.
"What are we getting ourselves into, Whiskers?" Tessa sighed, affectionately patting her bird's beak. "Whoa, hey, relax. This is good," Flynn smiled. "This way, we won't have anyone shooting at us when we dock,"
X
"Okay, here's the cover story," Sharpfin whispered. "I'm captain of this ship, you two are my loyal crew," he gestured to Flynn and Tessa, the latter of which snorted in irritated disdain, "and he's a rich elitist musician that hired me to take him to his next concert," Fiesta smiled at this description. "I am perfectly happy with this arrangement, mi amigo," he lent his support. "Makes one of us," Tessa snorted. Flynn clapped her on the back. "Sometimes you just gotta go with it," he shrugged.
X
"Hey, I'm sure he didn't mean that," Spyro tried to console his friend. Whirlwind had her head buried in the blankets of her room. "Of course he did! Why the hell wouldn't he?"
"Because he's a bastard who never should have gotten into the Skylanders," Scratch snorted, affectionately licking Whirlwind's cheek and doing her best to ignore the taste of salt. Whirlwind instinctively flinched away.
"Got that right," Cynder snorted from the doorway to Whirlwind's room. No one took any notice of her.
"My wings aren't too big, are they?" the unicorn dragoness appealed to Scratch, who shook her masked head. "Naah," the sphinx snorted. "They're unusual, but don't worry, it suits you,"
"Thanks," Whirlwind sniffed, enveloping the sphinx in a clingy hug. Spyro awkwardly hung a few inches back. "Nice to see she feels better," Cynder nodded, moving up beside Spyro, who absent-mindedly draped an affectionate wing over her. "Look on the bright side, Whirlwind," she interrupted, and Whirlwind cast wary eyes at her. "Tomorrow you're going to a place where everyone loves you," Cynder pointed out, and Whirlwind nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. Tomorrow we're going to Winter Keep. I wonder how Duff's been doing?" Whirlwind told herself. "Who?" Scratch questioned, and Whirlwind enthusiastically began to regale her trainee with the tale of how she saved the frostbitten castle of Winter Keep from a terrible curse of eternal night.
"Wish I had a place like that," Cynder sighed to herself. "Hey, you have a devoted human internet following," Spyro tried to console his girlfriend. "Yay. Billions of people who heard some misconstrued version of the fiasco with Malefor that some wiseguy turned into a shoddy video game, and think I'm a fictional character, love me," Cynder sarcastically snorted.
Spyro could not respond to that.
X
"Ah, mi amigos, que pasa?" Fiesta enthusiastically greeted the trolls that boarded the ship. "Huh?" The female trolls questioned and looked at each other. "He's, uh, from a far-away part of Skylands. Fiesta, please remember to use the common tongue," Sharpfin gently reminded the Undead musician, and he nodded. "Okay, okay, Sharpfin," he sighed.
Flynn blinked in surprise. "So these are female trolls?" he gasped. "They look no different to the male ones!"
Sure enough, the green-skinned females were just as squat, knobbly, hairy and ugly as their male counterparts. "Wow," Flynn's eyes widened as he stared at the largest one in the middle. "Now that is a face that only a mother could love," he blinked at the troll with gnarled, protruding teeth, a nose like a raven's beak and a patchwork dress that might have once had polkadots. "Flynn? Diplomacy?" Tessa suggested. "Diploma-what-now?" he repeated in confusion.
But the trollette in question took no notice of Flynn's insult. She had eyes only for Fiesta and the massive quantities of money he surely possessed to pay her for her fuel.
"Cash first. Then gas," she demanded. "Why, certainly," Fiesta nodded, feeling his jumpsuit for a second. Then his eyes lit up with an idea. "I know where I left it," he smiled, donning the sombrero slung over his back. A black-and-red vortex immediately appeared under his feet, which he dropped into up to his head. "Just give me a second!" the seemingly disembodied head of Fiesta requested. And, sure enough, to the amazement of the watching trolls, he took a deep breath and instantly reappeared - brandishing his massive horn at the trolls. "My sincerest apologies, mi amigos, but I do not pay evil," he declared, before blowing a massive blast of air into his horn. The resulting musical note was so strong that it blew the Amazons off the pier and several feet onto the island. "You did say those were evil trolls, right?" he asked Flynn for confirmation. "Technically, she said it," he pointed at Tessa. "Close enough. Onwards, mi amigos, we advance!" he shouted, strutting down the pier and tooting his horn in the general direction of the trolls. "Come on, it's gonna be a party down here! A real fiesta!" Fiesta exuberantly declared.
X
"About time I figured out where this book got to," Kaos grumbled, snatching up 'One Hundred Legends of Skylands' from where it lay abandoned on the floor. "Now, where was I before Her Annoyingness interrupted me? Ah, yes, Legend #59: The Terrors of Traptanium," Kaos read, turning to the right page. "Traptanium is the rarest element in the universe. Occupying position number one-hundred-and-twenty-seven on the universal periodic table, it is renowned for being almost indestructible. It can only be created through infusing pure diamond with the superheated power of a million suns. Such heat can only be attained with the power of the Eternal Fire Source. Makes sense," Kaos grumbled, "of course the Skylosers would have it. In addition to being almost indestructible, with the correct specialised magical methods, a pocket dimension can be created within a shard of Traptanium that can be used as an inescapable prison. Legend has it that the fabled Cloudcracker Prison was constructed almost entirely out of this incredibly rare mineral. Sadly, it is impossible to verify this, as Cloudcracker Prison had vanished into fable, only spoken of in fairy tales and bedtime stories, and no one can be certain as to whether or not it ever actually existed. Dang, I would have loved my own personal inescapable prison," Kaos groaned in irritation.
"Are you sure you should be spending your time researching fairy tales, master?" Glumshanks questioned. "Quiet, you! The City of Arkus was a fairy tale too, and we all saw how that turned out!" Kaos snapped at his butler. "Speaking of which, I wonder whatever happened to the Iron Fist of Arkus? And my old Conquertron. I would have loved to throw him in Her Motherness' ugly, pedicured face," Kaos snapped.
"What's the Iron Fist of Arkus?" Darkus' voice interrupted him. Kaos' eyes went wide in shock as he turned and stared at the video screen, which had turned itself on and revealed the dragon's face. "It was the most awesome relic of ultimate power I ever hand on my hand!" Kaos demanded. "See? This hand!" he shouted, holding out his right hand. "This one right here! This hand wore the Iron Fist of Arkus!"
"Well, it's not wearing the Fist NOW, is it? And that's what really matters," Darkus snorted. "Now, where exactly did you lose it?"
"Some basement in the throne room of the Lost City of Arkus, I dunno," Kaos snorted. "And where exactly is this Lost City of Arkus?" Darkus asked. "The south-east sector, point twelve slash thirty-six and a half in the grid. It's buried deep underground, but there's a back door near the bottom that lets you right in there. Why?" Kaos explained. "No reason, just boredom," Darkus shrugged. "Goodbye, bro!"
"I'M NOT YOUR BROTHER!" Kaos snapped, but the line had already gone dead.
A/N
A/N
Just in case this needed clearing up for anyone, no, Fiesta is not part of the Skylanders at present. I just figured it was totally unrealistic that Flynn would rout a camp of Trolls by himself and he needed at least one Skylander, even if they weren't a Skylander at the time, with him. As to why exactly he was with Sharpfin, that's a story for another time. :P
BlazinVoid, it's Snap Shot, not Slap Shot. XD And I agree.
LiteFox, you have the right of it. Sharpfin's definitely an enjoyable and thus recurring character. :) I symphasise with Spy Rise . . . but I'm not letting him off. That's what his state-mandated days off are for. XD Thanks. :)
icepelt2000, yes, I am talking about the Ranger's Apprentice book series. Cloudcracker is definitely gonna be relevant. And Sharpfin would prefer you to think of him as a privateer. XD
BEST OC MAKER, utopiaray123. thanks for the support. :)
samjax, I already talked to you. I think. Right?
And Darkus is cooking up trouble. As is Kaos' incompetence. XD I wonder where this will lead?
Seriously, I don't know. I'm making a lot of this up as I go along. XD
Next chapter, Fiesta gets SuperCharged, Whirlwind becomes a celebrity, Jet-Vac might be accidentally on purpose left behind and the mystery does not continue to unravel. Maybe. Next time; Freezes and Festivities! Peace!