Skylands Legends

5.3 Dark Revelations

Stealth Elf sat atop the wooden bridge overlooking the Academy waterfall that silently trailed off the island. She watched the sun set out on the horizon as she waited for Starcast to show up.

She had arrived at the academy around noon hoping to be able to say goodbye to Jet Vac and Eruptor before she left, but neither of them had been there. So she waited around for Starcast to show up for their voyage into the Outlands. He hadn't shown up. It was now two hours past the time they had planned on meeting up, an oddity for the four armed cosmic being as he was never late.

Doubt was beginning to seep into her mind. All of his promises that he would help her and he didn't show up. She really thought he had cared about her quest, but now it was beginning to seem she was wrong.

Sighing, she stood up to go get some food at the very least. She'd give it a few more hours, maybe he got caught up with something, she figured, giving him the benefit of the doubt. Besides, if he was late it might give her a chance to say goodbye to her friends anyway.

She was stepping off the bridge when she spotted the sky ship flying in towards the Academy hangar. At the helm she saw Jet Vac guiding it in. Smiling, she took off towards the hangar. At least something good was coming out of Starcast's delay.

*******

The flight back had been an eventful one for Jet Vac. First, he'd helped the mabu at the infirmary stabilize Chill Bill and get him on some respirator devices. They were still worried he wouldn't make it, but there was a chance now. They had then kicked Jet Vac out so they could have some space to work.

He wanted to be angry with them for that, but he knew they were right. He knew very little about healing. So, Jet Vac wandered top side and watched as they ascended out of the Lowlands and into the blue skies. The change in air quality was immediately apparent. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed the fresh air.

Taking it all in, he pulled out his farspeaker and called up the best tracker he knew; Bushwhack. He told him the situation and negotiated the terms of his contract to track down the beast. Jet Vac was rather surprised to find that his rates had gone up since the last time the Skylanders had hired him. Supposedly it was because he now had a partner. Either way, he now had to call up the Academy to negotiate a contract for Bushwhack's services.

Following that call, the captain of the ship had asked if Jet Vac could take over navigation for now. Jet Vac had gladly taken it, not even caring what the captain's reason was for needing him to take over. He just needed something to keep his mind off everything. Flying was something that would always clear his head.

He let his worries fade away and just became one with the skies. Shifting different gears of the ship as different drafts caught them at different times. He got lost in the ship's rhythm and before long, the Academy was on the horizon.

He took them into dock at the hangar and helped transfer Chill Bill to the Academy's infirmary and let the healers and medical staff take care of the rest.

The sun had set at some point but Jet Vac didn't really feel like going to bed yet. He knew bad dreams and thoughts he didn't really want to delve into quite yet waited for him there. So he just wandered the academy.

He passed the portal room and went in to check it out. He grabbed a portaler and activated it to himself before crushing it. He felt a brief tug, as if it was ready to pull him to the portal, but then it stopped and nothing happened.

Sighing, he left the broken pieces of the portaler on a table and returned to his meandering.

He hadn't realized that at some point he had made his way to the elevator below ground until the system let out a ding and the doors opened. He stepped out into the hall of cells and made his way through them. He passed dozens of empty traptanium cells before just stopping and leaning his back against the wall.