Chapter 21: Boom, Boom, Boom

"Weigh anchor, matey!" Wash Buckler commanded, brandishing his sword at Magna Charge.

"I do not believe that that is possible. My magnetic wheel is not capable of gaining enough friction to maintain a hold on a chain such as this," Magna Charge responded, holding up the coiled chain near the anchor and casting a questioning look at Wash Buckler.

"Quit yar bellyachin' and throw that anchor like a real man!" Doom Stone commanded, effortlessly snatching up the cast-iron anchor and tossing it overboard. The chain that Magna Charge was still holding suddenly went taut and jerked him off his wheel, pulling the unfortunate Swaplander overboard before he had a chance to let go.

Wash Buckler winced, hearing Magna Charge's echoing scream as he fell. Freeze Blade dashed to the side. "Don't let go of the anchor!" he 'helpfully' shouted at his falling teammate.

"I will keep that in miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiind!" the robot called back up at them. Eventually all the slack ran out, and the anchor jerked to a halt. Wash Buckler drew breath to order Boom Jet to fly down and pick him up, then remembered. "Oh yeah," he sighed through tentacled lips.

And, after all, that was why they were here, wasn't it? He stared at the island they had docked nearby, the imposing black mountain that contained Linagarnix' subterranean base. A hundred years ago, it had been from here that she conducted her illegal operations. Perhaps, a century later, she still did.

"Tighten our course, midshipman!" he commanded, glaring at Grilla Drilla, who manned the tiller. "Quartermaster, prepare!" he commanded of Hoot Loop, and the owl saluted, poofing away. "Get to singing that shanty, ship drunkard!" he commanded, gesturing to an irritated Spy Rise. "Why am I the ship drunkard? I am the only person on this team who has never touched a drop of alcohol in his life!" the unfortunate Spyder barked.

"Because your first name rhymes with 'pie'," the captain told him as though that made perfect sense, before wheeling to glare at the rest of the crew. "Look sharp, the rest of you layabouts! We be preparing to launch our assault upon the Isle of the Ill-Fated!" In an instant, he wheeled and turned to Spy Rise once more. "What did I say about that shanty?"

He sighed and pressed a brassed hand to his throat. "Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate's life for me. Yo ho, yo ho, away on yonder sea,"

"Excellent!" Wash nodded, firing his pistol into the air. A large bubble popped out, and he cursed. "Sometimes I wish I had a gun that made noise,"

He tilted his head upwards and stared up at the crow's nest. "Free Ranger! Any sign of offensive assailants?"

"I'll give you offensive and assailing," Spy Rise huffed.

"Negative, Cap'n!" Free Ranger hollered from the top of the mast.

"Stay on guard, men! Be ready for anything!" Wash Buckler commanded.

Freeze Blade saluted with a frosty chakra. "Aye, captain! I shall prepare to battle a giant cow armed with exploding ketchup cupcakes!" he grinned.

"You do that, cabin's boy! You do that!" Wash Buckler nodded.

There was a ruckus from somewhere below the ship, and Magna Charge's woozy voice echoed from below decks. "Land hooooooo,"

"Now, everyone! Charge!" Wash Buckler declared. "Take no prisoners!"

As one, the eager Swaplanders charged to the sides of the S.S. REAL MAN, Free Ranger twirling down from the crow's nest and Grilla abandoning his position at the tiller - and paused. "Er, captain?" Fire Kraken asked.

"What's the hold-up?" Wash Buckler demanded.

"We're still fifty feet in the air," Fire Kraken pointed out.

The mermasquid elbowed his way through his teammates and irritably peered over the side. A couple of hundred metres below him, the crystals in the blackened ground cheerfully twinkled.

Wash Buckler snorted in irritation. "Bring her about, men. We're gonna try this one again,"

X

"Good news, sir!" Glumshanks declared, bursting into Kaos' throne room.

"The latest edition of Minions Monthly has arrived?" the Dark Portal Master asked in excitement.

"Uh, no, but it's even better," the butler attempted. "The engineers are done with the rocket!"

"Oh, that is good," Kaos nodded, dropping One Hundred Legends of Skylands onto his throne as he stood up. "Fascinating book, that. Gives me so many evil ideas - as a matter of fact, on second thought -" He whirled, snatched it up and stuffed it into his dress. "Now, Glumshanks! To the rocket!"

"Yes, master," the troll sighed.

X

"Now this is a rocket worth beholding!" Kaos crowed, gazing up at the great silver machine his trolls had created. "As a matter of fact," he smiled to himself, before clutching his throat. "Testing, testing, doh ray me fah so la tea doh. BEHOLD!"

"Very good, master," Glumshanks dryly applauded.

"You!" Kaos barked at a random nearby troll. "Is it ready?"

The troll in question, who was wearing a golden mask and had an odd contraption strapped to his back, wheeled and nodded. "You bet it is, master Kaos! If that rocket won't get you up to the Skyhighlands, my name isn't Threatpack!"

"Eh?" the Dark Portal Master blinked. "I thought your name was er, Professor Nitrius, uh, Neo, er,"

"Nilbog, sir. But Threatpack is fine, sir," the troll supplied. "Now, to the rocket!"

"Quite so! To the rocket!" Kaos agreed with a grin, charging towards the launching tower set next to the rocket.

"Uh, you're coming, master? In person?" his butler asked in surprise. "Wouldn't it be safer to stay down here?"

"Nonsense, Glumshanks. My plans have a bad habit of failing if I'm not there to oversee them in person. Therefore, I am of course coming to ensure the success in acquiring this laser from those dreadful sky pirates," Kaos exclaimed. "Then, we can use their magical laser pointer to find the legendary Cloudcracker Prison and release every evil villain in history from it, who will, of course, all be so grateful to me that they will all bow down and obey me, becoming my army of supervillains!"

"Yes, yes, thank you for the recap. Now, we really ought to get on board," Threatpack suggested, and the Dark Portal Master nodded. "Yes, yes, of course. Onwards and upwards!"

"Unfortunately, due to how far away the Skyhighlands is, even if we blast off now, we won't actually get there until tomorrow," Threatpack admitted with a shrug.

"What? Oh, poop," Kaos cursed.

X

The dawn shone on the frozen ramparts of Winter Keep. In his toasty warm bedroom, Spyro rose and stretched, enjoying the warm light shining through the window. He rubbed his horns with a hind leg, relieving an itch, and flexed his wings. "Good morning, Skylands,"

He swung his door open and immediately bumped into a familiar vampiress. "Morning, Roller," he courteously nodded. "What brings you . ." he paused. "Outside my room?"

"Oh, not you," Roller Brawl responded, before realising how rude it sounded and blustering apologetically. "I mean, uh - not that you aren't worth waiting outside the room of, just, the window in the corridor here has the best view of the sunrise,"

The purple dragon had heard about Roller Brawl's love of sunrises from his girlfriend, and nodded. "Why of you do that, anyway?" Spyro asked, curious.

In response, she gestured him towards the window opposite his room. "Look at it. Every morning, when the sun rises from beneath the clouds, it brings a new day to life. The sunrise reminds me that there's always a brighter tomorrow, always some hope and wonder to look forward to. It's why I wanted to be a Skylander. I wanted to be part of the group that was responsible for so much of the hope and joy in Skylands,"

"Sounds like a good reason to me," Spyro nodded, perching on the windowsill and watching the orange light spread across the sky.

"Big day tomorrow," Roller Brawl commented.

"Yup. The Volcano's finally gonna erupt. It's so exciting! It might not even happen again within our lifetime," the dragon glossed.

He spotted Roller Brawl's baleful glare. "Uh, I mean, you'll see plenty, being unageing and all, but, you know what I mean," he protested. The skater snorted, but nodded.

"Di you think I'm gonna be good enough?" she suddenly asked. "To be a good Skylander, I mean,"

Spyro affably smiled. "Well, you might never be Spyro the Dragon, but I think you'll do fine,"

Roller Brawl rolled her eyes, but nodded. "Anyway. Time for my morning workout. See ya later!" And with that, she skated away, among towards the stairs.

The purple dragon paused, and looked back at the sunrise. "She's right. It is pretty cool," he nodded, before turning to leave.

In the shadows of his room, a hooded figure watched him depart, seeing through the walls. Enigma swung his long, bladed weapon absent-mindedly, and shifted his focus other Skylander he was spying on. Roller Brawl was far more interesting than Spyro, and he felt that he would gain much more from watching her than he would from the leader of the Cores . . . but his duty was to observe Spyro, not his girlfriend's protégée.

Enigma drove his Traptanium sceptre into the ground and softly commanded, "Out of Sight," With a flicker, he vanished into the Ghost World to keep an eye on Spyro from a layer of reality that he could never be detected from. There was only one other Enigma knew of who could appear in both the mortal and Ghost Worlds as he could, and he was far away indeed. Probably.

Hopefully.

X

Jet-Vac, who had been busy touching up his SkyBike at the docks, looked up in excitement at the familiar sound of jet engines. "Could it be?" he blinked, excited.

Sure enough, the Sky Slicer docked nearby, and Stormblade emerged with a grin. "Hey. Sorry it took so long to get back, I've been, ah, busy," she shrugged, approaching her friend. "I see you're getting serious about that thing," the female Sky Baron commented, looking st the SkyBike.

Gone was the rust and dirt. Jet-Vac had polished, re-plated and painted every inch, with cyan and white and hints of gold. "Yeah. It's been kind of fun, having a hobby, eheheheh," he awkwardly chuckled.

"Well, no offence, but you're kind of an amateur when it comes to bodywork," Stormblade offered her constructive criticism. "But not to worry. I know a guy who can get that bike from okay to totally awesome," she offered, gunning her plane's engine. "Follow me,"

"Yes ma'am!" Jet-Vac smiled. Not only was he going to get to spend time with the beautiful Sky Baroness, he could get his new set of wings fixed up! Win-win!

X

Wash Buckler squinted. "Can anyone find a light switch, me hearties? I be unable to see!"

"We're not on the bloody pirate ship anymore, you can drop the stupid accent!" Spy Rise shouted from somewhere not too far away.

The SWAP Force had split up upon entering Linagarnix' old lair, simply because it was so vast and they could all function fine in teams of two.

After Wash Buckler had shot down Hoot Loop's suggestion that he could teleport fast enough to effectively be in two places at once, he decided to grant Spy Rise his wish and let him work alone.

The Spyder seemed oddly unenthusiastic about being alone in a place with low illumination, riddled with booby-traps, puddles of toxic sludge and the Ancients knew what other leftover horrors that Linagarnix had left lying around. Funny thing, that.

"So, hombre, what exactly are we looking for?" Rattle Shake, Wash Buckler's teammate, asked.

"Well, this place obviously isn't in use, so I'd say some clue as to where mamma's boy's mamma is doing her evil these days. A forwarding address or something?" the Mermasquid shrugged.

"So, you have no clue," the serpent surmised.

"Well, investigating the Adventurer's Guild was a bust, and so was trying to track down that Snap Shot person Spy Rise met. Unless we want to try looking for the lady running the puppet show Freeze Blade mentioned seeing on their mission, this is our last shot," Wash Buckler huffed.

"Do you think that looking for the puppet lady will get us anywhere?" Rattle Shake questioned.

Wash Buckler's exhausted, patienceless glare said everything. "Do you think some random lady with a pile of ugly puppets can tell us anything of note?" he asked.

"My friend, what is the matter? The Wash Buckler I know would never be so defeated," Rattle Shake asked, wrapping an arm around his teammate'a shoulders.

"We've been looking for nine days and nothing. Not even a whisker of a clue," the leader sighed. "Every trail leads to nowhere, every track goes in circles, and if Freeze Blade eats one more helping of Cap'n Cluck's he's gonna pop!"

"I resent that!" Freeze Blade shouted from somewhere in the complex.

"My friend, don't worry. We are all tired and stressed. But have faith. We will find our brother, and everything will be back to normal once again," Rattle Shake reassured his friend.

"Thanks," Wash Buckler nodded.

They both froze as a deep, echoing roar emerged from the tunnels in front of them. "I suppose you do not think that was our hombre Grilla's stomach, do you?" Rattle Shake asked.

"I know that sound. Let's go," the pirate growled, docking his gun and dashing towards it.

"Maybe this is why Boom Jet got captured. We all have a horrible habit of running towards danger, instead of away from it," the snake bemoaned, but followed his teammate regardless.

The two emerged into a vast chamber, filled with the mangled and broken remains of several cages. "That smell, I know it," Rattle Shake hissed, tasting the air with his tongue.

"If you farted, keep it to yourself," Wash Buckler autonomously responded. It was his go-to phrase for whenever any of his teammates brought up smells.

"Not that kind of smell!" the snake retorted. "I smell . . . evil. Evil with a long, sinuous body and stubby little arms,"

Wash Buckler paled. "What? No way, they all died in the last Cloudbreak Eruption! There can't possibly be any left!"

The two SWAPlanders, immediately realising the danger they were in, instantly assumed a back-to-back position, both readying their guns.

There was a crackling sound from one of the corners of the debris-littered room, and Wash Buckler flinched towards it, aiming with shaking hands.

There was silence for a moment longer, and then a large, metal box tumbled down from a pile. It fell in front of the door that they had entered through, blocking their exit. Rattle Shake, who had watched this, gulped. This was bad.

"What was that?" Wash demanded, wanting desperately to look, but knowing that doing so would give their adversary an opening. "Amigo, hombre, we are trapped," Rattle Shake gulped.

There was another noise, and Rattle Shake turned towards it. The mini-snake within his gun quivered in fear.

"Rattle Shake?" Wash Bucker asked.

"Si, hombre?"

"If . . . we don't make it out of here," Wash Buckler gulped, "I just want you to know that -"

"Hush, hombre. Your words, they say it all without needing anything to be said," Rattle Shake nodded. "I feel the same,"

There was a tumultuous uproar in Wash Buckler's direction, ad the Mermasquid gulped. Rattle Shake decided this was worth breaking the rule, and turned to look.

Looking down on them, rising up from the piles of clutter in the room, was an elderly, angry-looking Fire Viper. Its yellow eyes glared down at them in fury, as though considering how best to kill them for intruding on its territory.

"Hombre, if we die today, we die fighting, si?" the sheriff suggested.

"Si," Wash Buckler agreed. "Wait, that does mean yes, right?" he paused, seeking confirmation.

In response, Rattle Shake cocked his gun, aiming it at a spot between his adversary's eyes. "Go ahead, amigo. Snake my day,"

A/N

A/N

So, my word of the day is 'affably'. XD Seriously, I wish I'd learnt it sooner.

And I know, the update took ages. It's hard to write for Skylanders with the rumours going around that it might be cancelled. Plus, I've been focusing mainly on my original novels, so, there's that.

Thanks, Jayla. I really appreciate that. ^^

Fanboy . . I don't really know what to say, and what I do know isn't something I wanna say here. If you're still interested, PM me. If not . . . yeah. :(

Peace, I guess.