I'm raising children, aren't I?

I had thought learning how to be a Skylander would be tough. There was a bunch of magic to know about and how all the different elements interacted with each other. But now I was teaching four Skylanders how to be regular humans.

How about I start from the beginning? I am originally from Earth, sort of an outcast from the rest of the population. I lived in a small town in Ohio. I know, the greatest place on the planet, am I right? Anyway, one random day I was sucked into a portal taking me to Skylands and I was turned into a Skylander; Chop Chop to be specific. I met up with four other Skylanders and they quickly became very close friends of mine. Roller Brawl, Dino-Rang, Snap Shot, and Pop Fizz helped me figure out the inner workings of Skylands and how to be a hero. We went on a crazy adventure filled with pirates, giant head cannons, and weird lava creatures. It was all to find this place called the Sacred Tomb of Sacred Masks that would let me keep my powers of Chop Chop once we got back here on Earth. Now why would I come back to Earth from such an amazing place like Skylands? Because Kaos, or some other bad guy as many people warned me about, was going to invade Earth, that's why! Well once the five of us got back on Earth we were all turned into humans. I became my normal self again, but Roller Brawl, Dino-Rang, Snap Shot, and Pop Fizz? They somehow got turned into humans just like me. They each received human names too. You see, there's a prophecy about us saving the universe except that there are five other Skylanders that we have to meet in order to become Skylanders again.

But until then, we were stuck as humans. With no magic, powers, or a sense of what Earth was like of any kind, my four friends had no idea what to do. So we decided that until our five buddies from the prophecy meet up, we would set up a place for them to stay and they would live with me.

They had no idea how to build a stinking tree house…

"YOUCHEE GAH MOTHER OF YELLOW ARMADILLOS!" Paul screamed. I forgot who gave him the job of hammering nails because it definitely was not me. Paul Finch was the name Pop Fizz went by. Poor guy got turned into a grade-A nerd. He was short with stubby legs. He had brownish-red hair that was just a shaggy mane. Paul also wore huge rectangle glasses. Don't get me wrong, Paul was a smart guy and knew a bunch about math and science, but he was also a clown and jokester. Somehow he found a way to make jokes at the most inappropriate times. One thing he was not however was a worker. So by default he had already slammed his finger with the hammer and came to me looking for help.

"Paul, you have to hit the nail, not the nail on your finger!" I told him.

"Yeah, I think I got that! What's wrong with my finger though?" Paul said as he lifted his limp hand. His finger was swollen like a bee sting.

"You smashed it, now go inside and get some ice on it" I advised.

He went inside as I scanned how the rest were doing. Sam Shotley, a.k.a Snap Shot, was measuring lengths of two by fours and marking them with a pencil. Sam was easily the faster learner. He wore a blue plaid long-sleeve shirt and had his pencil tucked behind his ear. He had jet black hair and green eyes. Somehow on the transfer from Skylands to here, he lost his Australian accent and was greeted with a professional sounding accent, as if he could be a tv news anchor. I approached him quietly as he worked.

"Hey Sam?" I finally spoke to break the silence. Sam jumped and stumbled back.

"Woah, you scared me there" he said and chuckled slightly.

I chuckled with him and offered my hand. Sam took it and lifted himself up to his feet. "How is it coming?" I asked.

He looked at the plank he was measuring. "Pretty well actually. I almost have every piece measured and then Dan can cut them" Sam said.

I noticed at large pile of wooden planks to the side of Sam's station. All of them were marked with a pencil and untouched. "Where is Dan, anyway?" I mentioned.

Sam took notice of the planks as well. "Hmm, I don't know where the ol' chap is."

I looked around and saw the lazy Skylander lying in the sun next to the sidewalk. Dan Rangers was soaking up the sun. He had regular jeans on and a red t-shirt under a short-sleeved green button up. He had dark brown hair and shades blocking his blue eyes and a piece of grass sticking out of the corner of his mouth. I strode over to him and slightly tapped him with the toe of my shoe.

"Yeah mate?" he said in his Australian accent.

"You enjoying your sun bath, Dino-Rang?" I asked him, testing whether or not he'd respond to his Skylander alias.

"Sure am mate!" he responded giddily.

I used my foot and shoved Dan on his side which made him spit out the piece of grass and his shades to fly off his face. "Oi mate, what was that for?"

"You aren't Dino-Rang anymore, you're Dan Rangers. Now get back to work!" I yelled at him.

"Sheesh, aight mate I'm on it." Dan said and went to his station to cut the wooden planks.

I breathed in heavily and sighed. It had been less than a day and my friends have already driven me up the wall. Sure Sam was a hard worker, but he asked so many questions. Luckily he learned fast, but some things can be figured out on their own. What does 'pulling my leg' mean? How does this work? Why are humans the only creatures that can speak? What kind of magic makes this work? So many questions! Paul and Dino-Rang were loud and cracked jokes all the time that it got to be annoying. The only one that could keep me cool was…

"How you holding up?" Rachel came up behind me. I turned around to face her. Her pink hair, black leather jacket, and black skinny jeans could only belong to Roller Brawl. The two of us had been through a lot together. I brought her out of her shell and the other Skylanders gained a growing respect for her. She had amazing bronze eyes and a pretty pale complexion.

"Ah Rachel!" my voice cracked. "How is your side coming along?"

"All done." Rachel motioned towards the tree we were using. Any branches that would have been in the way were cut down and the rest of the tree had very noticeable notches cut into them where the house would go. The girl was good with a buzz saw I have to admit.

"Awesome. You're the best." I said as I slumped into her arms to give her a hug. "And by best I mean you're keeping me sane."

She laughed slightly and gripped my back. I lifted myself back up after a couple seconds. When I looked up, I had to double take at what the other three were doing. Every plank was cut in a pile at Paul's feet. Even though one of his fingers was wrapped with a bag of ice, he was effortlessly tossing each plank into the air. Dan had a small tub of nails to his side. He grabbed four of them and tossed them into the air. On their way down, Dan punched two of them, kicked one of them with the toe of his shoe, spun around and then kicked the last one with the his heel. The four nails stuck into the plank with such force, it shot the plank into the tree where it stuck immediately. Sam was in the tree and as soon as the plank struck he slid down a branch and stroked the plank with wax. I stared as the three of them worked like a well-oiled machine. Within minutes the treehouse was built.

This is why we're a team I thought. I still couldn't believe what I had just seen. It was like something straight out of a Kung Fu cartoon.

Rachel grabbed my arm and led me to the side of the tree where wooden planks made a ladder into the treehouse. "You don't think Eon would just leave us here without a little bit of magic do you?" she asked. I stood there bewildered at the thought.

"So we sort of have secret identities. We're superheroes!" I said.
"Yeah I guess we are. One last thing." She lifted her arm and her palm was facing the tree house. Rachel closed her eyes and I saw them flutter behind her eyelids. The house shuttered for a second and then stopped. "Alright, it's ready, come on!" she said. She climbed the latter and I followed her up. She opened the door and hopped in. When I entered behind her my jaw dropped.

The house inside was way bigger than it possibly could have been. There were screens all over the walls. The walls were dark blue and there were five beds lined up next to each other. Next to the last bed was a ladder leading up a second floor. On the outside there definitely was not a second floor.

"Where's that lead to?" I asked Rachel.

"It's sort of like a command tower. We can communicate with Jet-Vac and the others. There's an implanted MALL that we can use if we get in a jam. Oh, and there's direct contact with Skylands. We can only use it a little though. We don't have that much magic. We did keep our fighting skills! That's why you're so good with a sword." Rachel explained.

Sam, Paul, and Dan came in with them. "Nicely made Rach!" Sam mentioned.

"Yeah, this place rocks!" Paul said.

Dan looked at me. "Hey Chop Chop, what do we call you now?"

I hadn't thought of that. I almost told him my name, but at that moment I realized that each of their names sounded pretty close to their Skylander names. I was one of them. I decided to leave my old human name in the past. I was now a Skylander and I had an alias.

"Call me Chandler. Chandler Charleston."