Skylanders: Second Leaf

Chapter __ ~ Racing Into Action

The group was carefully making their way back towards the ship, trudging through the knee-high snow yet again. Angelo had managed to fix most of their wounds while Buzz lectured them over their narrow miss at defeat. All of them had nodded and smiled as the ninja commando drowned on and on as they walked, though most weren't really listening. One of those being was Kaos, who had come to only a few minutes before they had begun heading back. The Tiny Tyrant walked beside Scrape, a sense of embarrassment occupying his mind. He had done nothing in battle. Nothing at all. Well, besides getting himself knocked out. His head still ached from that blow, a headache pounding within his skull. The worst part was, they hadn't needed him. They had won the battle just fine without him. Kaos looked down at his hands, inspecting them over like he hadn't seen them in ages, then clenched them into fists. Something about all of this, the feeling of being useless, was just eating him up inside. That same feeling had begun to plague Lucarian as he stared down at his mask. Just at a touch, he could feel a powerful aura emanating from it. He had made a promise to find a way to give the Cube back, but... did he really want to? With his mask, Lucarian felt like a warrior. A hero. An actual Skylander.

Meanwhile, Shakai hummed softly to himself as he flew along, the dragonoid being one of the only few still listening to Buzz's lecture, although he was starting to lose focus. The tune he was humming was just so familiar, yet he couldn't quite place it. The more he tried to, the more he felt like his blood was boiling, his wings struggling to keep him aloft. The tune was just so soft and sweet; a lullaby dripping with poisoned memories. Shakai shook his head as he heard and absence of sound, finally realizing Buzz had wrapped up his lecture mere moments ago. At this opportunity, Shade cleared his throat.

"Where is the next cube, Zelcron?" The Darkling asked, looking down at the crystal strung around his neck, which he had scooped up in his palm.

"For that," Zelcron replied, "we must travel to the Plain Plains."

"That sounds like a boring place to hold an all-powerful, magical artifact." Ringmaster frowned, seeming almost disappointed.

It seemed like the next step in their quest would be simple, smooth sailing. At the thought of this, some gave sighs of relief, while others stopped themselves from complaining. It was probably for the best anyway. After that battle, they all needed a well deserved break. Although it would most likely be quite lackluster, what mattered was getting the Cube and stopping the multiverse from imploding on itself. Not the level of excitement the quest presented. After all, the quicker they got the Cubes, the better. They were in a time crunch after all.

"ATTENTION SKYLANDS!"

Everyone froze, beginning to look around for where the booming voice had come from. After a second or so, Hugo slipped his backpack off and set it down on the ground, rummaging through its contents before pulling out some sort of TV-like device. The others crowded around to see what - or who - was being broadcasted onto its screen. To their dismay, they found the all too familiar, furry face of Pandergast staring back at them.

"In just a few hours, the monthly RACESTRAVAGANZA shall begin! Race land, sea or sky against the best in all of Skylands! The grand champion will receive a wondrous, STUPENDOUS artifact I happened to come across earlier this very day!" The screen shifted to show a green cube of shimmering crystal in Pandergast's outstretched hand, which was then placed onto a pedestal before the screen shifted back to Pandergast's face. "It's not too late to SIIIGN UP! There are still some spots open! For those of you unable to race, tune in tonight at 10pm, only on SCB."

The screen blinked off once the ad had ended, showing only black. Everyone was silent.

"Or," Zelcron grumbled irritably, "that fool Pandergast could have taken it for himself..."