|| And here we have chapter 3 of The Birth of Dark Spyro, AKA "the part where Sunburn displays the fact that he's the best character in this series". ||

Chapter Three

Dark Spyro was a sight to behold, standing with his large wings out and teeth bared. Yes, he looked like Spyro, but somehow he also didn't at the same time. He had a longer wingspan than Spyro and teeth sharper than daggers. His crimson eyes showed intimidatingly in the darkness with vertical slits for pupils. His horns, chest, claws and tail were all a slick shade of silver, and his jet black scales blended in with the shadows.

Spyro stared up at his clone in confusion and pain. "I-It's..." He struggled to force the words out. "...me?"

Kaos cackled like he always does when things are going his way, leaping out of his chair. "Yes! Yes! It really worked!" he exclaimed.

"I'm just as surprised as you are, master," Glumshanks said. "But now the question is, will it do what you say?"

"Finally, a minion that's powerful and not completely incompetent!" Kaos totally ignored his butler. "After years of seeing flunkey upon flunkey defeated by those Skylame-os! After creating dozens of dark replicas of them with my own powers, without nearly enough strength to even stand a chance! Finally a creature capable of destroying the Skylanders once and for all!" He shot his hand into the air. "Dark Spyro!" The shadowy dragon's gaze flicked over to his creator. "Kill him."

Spyro swallowed as his dark doppelganger set sights on him and smirked. Dark's wings floated up, then shot down, propelling him up. In mere seconds- no, milliseconds -he landed directly in front of his original. A low growl emerged from Spyro's throat as they circled each other for a few moments. Eventually Dark took a step forward. He examined Spyro head to tail, then darkly uttered his first word- "Run."

Spyro took heed to this and stormed up as fast as his wings could carry him. Dark laughed ominously before shooting a powerful ball of blue fire. It missed... barely. Spyro perched on a windowsill and shot down three fireballs. However,since he was so tired, his aim was horribly off and Dark only had to tilt his head slightly to the left to avoid it. Spyro grumbled at this. He tried to think up a quick strategy, and leaped off of the ledge. He didn't even attempt to fly; that wasn't his plan. He instead landed with such force that the impact sent out a shock wave. It knocked Kaos into his throne and spilled Glumshanks' tea, but Dark was smart enough to jump. The landing had drained any possible energy that Spyro had left, and he fell over. Dark grabbed him by the horn and tossed him onto his back. Spyro groaned as Dark set a foot on his stomach in triumph. "It's a shame that I have to do this while you're in this weakened state..." Dark muttered, running his claw across Spyro's scales. "...I would have preferred a real fight." He raised his claws, flashed a toothy grin, and gashed Spyro's belly open.

Kaos was on the edge of his seat laughing as Spyro cried out. "Ha ha! This is the best thing since Malefore's takeover!" he said. "Glumshanks, go make me some popcorn!"

"Damn it, blood is so hard to clean..." the Troll complained.

Spyro rolled onto his side, still moaning from the pain as blood trickled out of his open wound. "Defeated by... myself..." he choked. "Sunburn was... he was right... It was a trap... and... and I fell... right... into it..."

"You were a fool," Dark accused, sitting down next to his injured opponent. "To think that one silly mistake could lead to such a tragic downfall. But, stupidity always has fatal consequences..." He was examining his bloodied hand. It wasn't his own blood, of course. "Luckily I didn't get any of that stupidity." He turned back to Spyro. "Luckily for me, of course. Not necessarily for you." He stood back up. "Light's Out!"

Spyro knew that he couldn't fight back. He could barely even move. All he could do is pray that Sunburn would do a good job in his place and brace for his impending death. But just as Dark was about to deliver the killing blow, just as the second step in Kaos' ultimate plan was about to follow through...

Trigger Happy burst through the window.

He tackled Dark Spyro, latched onto him and started punching him in the face. "Die, evil Spyro!" he cried. "Die!"

"Damn it!" Kaos roared, getting out of his seat. "Don't you annoying Skylosers know how to use the door?!"

Then Sunburn flew through another one.

"Seriously?!"

Sunburn glanced at Trigger Happy and his efforts to subdue Dark, then went over to Spyro and looked at his injury. "Spyro, I'm sorry we didn't get here sooner..." he began.

"Just fix the h-hole in my stomach!"

Sunburn clenched his teeth. "Should have brought Whirlwind..." he muttered. "It's really bad, but I may be able to stop the bleeding... y'know, temporarily."

"Do whatever it t-takes..."

"Get off!" Dark Spyro flung Trigger Happy into a wall. Trigg shook himself off and rubbed his head, only to be pinned down. "On a scale of one to ten," the clone growled. "how much pain do you want to feel right now?"

Trigg swallowed. "Uh... zero?"

"Wrong answer!"

Sunburn blasted Dark with a flamethrower beam before he could hurt their gremlin friend. "Levae him alone, you frickin' faker!"

"Hurry up..." Spyro coughed.

"Ah! Sorry!" Sunburn was attempting to stop Spyro's bleeding by taking his own feathers and applying them to the wound. "This should work until we get to Woodburrow. Can you fly?"

Spyro slowly stood up, stumbling in the process. "Does it look like I can fly?"

"Good point," Sunburn said. "I'll carry you."

"What about T-Trigger Happy?"

"He can ride on my back, like he did on the way here."

"Can you do both?"

"Hey, I work out!"

Then Trigg ran screaming in their direction as Dark was unleashing a fury of blue fireballs on him. "Go go go!" the gunslinger exclaimed, hopping on Sunburn's back. "Let's get out of here!"

Sunburn grumbled. "Alright, I guess we're leaving now!" He scooped up Spyro and took off as fast as possible (through another window).

"Oh, c'mon!" Kaos cried. "Dark Spyro, go after them!" But Dark didn't obey. Instead, he stood completely still, watching the Skylanders fly away with a devilish smirk. Kaos took a couple steps forward in order to confront his new minion. "Dark Spyro, I command you to go after them!"

Dark frowned as he looked back at the Evil Portal Master. "If I let them go, Spyro will have a chance to heal," he said. "So the next time I fight him, he'll be at full power. He'll put up a real fight."

Kaos growled. "Listen here, fool..." He held up the "DOOM" remote. "I am your master. I created you, and I can destroy you with the push of a button. So the next time I tell you to go after the Skylanders, you go after the Skylanders! Do you understand?"

Dark snarled, then went back you a straight face. "Of course," he replied flatly. "...'master.'"

Spyro made it back to Woodburrow in one piece. Everybody wanted to hear what happened, but Whirlwind had forbidden him from story telling until his injury was properly taken care of. She washed it, used her rainbow and unicorn powers for as much good that could do, slapped a big band-aid on it and wrapped bandages all the way around his stomach and back. Once they were done with that, Whirl assured everybody that although he had lost quite a bit of blood, Spyro was going to be fine. This caused several sighs of relief.

"Sunburn and Trigger Happy told us what went down," Hot Dog told their leader. "You should really be more careful, sir."

Spyro nodded. "I know. It was stupid of me to do that, and even stupider to do so with so much confidence."

"So baldy has a cloning machine now, huh?" Roller Brawl said.

"But really, why would he need something like that?" Ghost Roaster questioned. "He can already create dark versions of us without any need for a machine."

"This one was different," Spyro said. "like nothing we've ever faced before. 'Dark Spyro' he called it. It was just as powerful as me!"

"Looks like it was stronger than you." Fryno pointed to his wound.

Spyro scowled. "The machine weakened me. That's the only reason he almost won." He sighed. "Look, he's up to something big this time. Not like manipulating Pop Fizz. Not like wiping the memories of Jet-Vac and the others. He's sure that this time he can defeat us and conquer Skylands."

"So what do you suggest we do, sir?" Hot Dog asked.

Spyro paused. This was more than most of the new recruits could handle. This may be more than what some of the veteran heroes could handle. But there was no avoiding it. "All I know... is that we have to be ready. We need to prepare for anything."

|| Ouch. This story is so edgy, I think I cut myself on it. Hey, here's a challenge: Which is edgier, The Birth of Dark Spyro, or Pop Fizz... of DOOM!? I'd argue that Sunburn and Stealth Elf was actually pretty edgy, but at least that one isn't actively trying to be edgy.

And I'm not kidding in that above author's note. Sunburn, just, objectively is the best character in this series. He's honorable, humorous, powerful, but not overpowered. He has strengths and weaknesses and cares about those around him, is consistently characterized, is there to pull his idiot friends out of tight situations, and even in the stories where literally everyone is a moron, he's the least moronic.

Then immediately after this one he gets an entire story centered around him. Oh boy. ||