by Onk Beakman
Trigger Happy weaved in and out of the ice prisons. “Oh, firing a few gold coins is easy. Pow, pow, pow!” He paused by Smolderdash. “What about doing it while burning brighter than a sun?”
“You mean like this?” Kaos smirked, his body starting to glow with Smolderdash’s power.
Trigger Happy was over by Food Fight now. “That’s okay, I guess. But it would be a lot more impressive if you were sitting on a giant revolving tomato!”
“Like THIS ONE?” cried Kaos, a humongous red tomato appearing beneath him.
“And breathing fire!” Spyro chipped in, immediately prompting smoke to curl out of Kaos’s mouth.
All around the field, the other Skylanders realized what Trigger Happy was up to.
“Do it while burping lava!” Eruptor shouted.
“And spitting acorns!” added Stump Smash.
“And controlling the weather!” bellowed Lightning Rod.
“And calling up ghosts!” said Cynder.
Kaos reacted to every challenge. He coughed up magma and exploding nuts. He caused rain clouds to form overhead and whipped up a gaggle of giggling ghosts. And still the calls kept coming.
“Create sea slime!”
“Fire your Bambazooker!”
“Generate ice armor!”
“Summon animal spirits!”
“Shoot crystal shards!”
“Turn into a tornado!”
“DO! IT! ALL!” Trigger Happy shouted, leaping up and down.
In front of them, Kaos was in trouble. Spurred on by the Skylanders, he was trying to use all their powers at the same time—something no one person was supposed to do, Mask of Power or no Mask of Power.
“I can do this!” he cried out, although his voice trembled with fear. “I am SUPREME!”
“Lord Kaos, stop!” Glumshanks yelled from his hiding place, before running toward his master, who was trying to do dozens of things at once. “It’s a trick! The Skylanders are . . . AAARGH!”
The Troll was knocked from his feet by Kaos’s flame whip, which was flailing around like a crazed snake.
“HELP . . . ME!” Kaos screamed, his voice louder than Sonic Boom’s cry. Prism Break’s crystals were forming and shattering across his back, his arms burning up like Hot Dog’s. “I can’t stop it! I CAN’T STOP IT!”
Trigger Happy’s grin was wider than ever. “No, but I can!” he said, and he stuck out his incredibly long tongue.
Chapter Fifteen
Unmasked
Trigger Happy’s tongue flicked toward Kaos, slapping the Mask of Power. With a twist of his head—and using his super-sticky saliva—Trigger Happy yanked the mask right off the Portal Master’s face.
The effect was instantaneous. In fact, it might have happened even faster than that. Free from Kaos’s face, the mask snapped back to its original shape. Lights burst from the evil Portal Master’s body. They raced around the sky like the best fireworks show you’ve ever seen and then found their homes. The Skylanders’ powers returned to them, one by one.
In turn, the Skylanders smashed their ice prisons, feeling stronger than ever before. The Citadel’s gardens filled with their battle cries.
“A blaze of glory!”
“One strike and you’re out!”
“Fear the fish!”
“Born to burn!”
“All fired up!”
“NOOOOOOOOO!” Kaos wailed, falling to his knees.
“YESSSS!” Trigger Happy replied, catching the Mask of Power in his hand. “It’s all mine, mine, mine!”
“Good work, Trigger Happy!” cried Spyro, but the smile soon fell from his scaly face. Trigger Happy was standing in the midst of the Skylanders, staring intently at the mask. As Spyro watched, it looked like Trigger Happy was actually considering putting it on!
“No, Trigger Happy! Don’t!” Spyro cried. But Trigger Happy smiled, winking at the dragon.
“Of course I won’t!” the Tech Skylander said, flicking out his tongue to retrieve his golden guns and throwing the Mask of Power high into the sky at the same time.
“This thing’s history. Three, two, one—FIRE!”
Working together, the Skylanders threw everything they had at the wooden mask. Fire. Ice. Water. Magic. Lightning. And, of course, golden coins. They all hit their mark, and the Mask of Power exploded into a million tiny pieces—far too many to ever put together again.
“My beautiful mask!” Kaos bawled, but it was too late. The defeated Portal Master’s eyes dropped, and he found himself surrounded by every single Skylander.
“L-L-Lord Kaos, I think we should leave,” Glumshanks gulped, trying to help his master to his feet.
“A good idea,” said Eon from behind the crowd of Skylanders. The Portal Master had been freed, the vines and exploding fruit having withered away to nothing as soon as Kaos’s stolen powers were lost. The Skylanders parted to let Master Eon pass.
“The Mask of Power is destroyed, and Skylands is safe once more. And as for you”—Master Eon pointed his staff at the cringing villain—“you need to be taught a lesson, once and for all!” The crystal on the end of the staff began to glow, and Kaos threw up his hands to ward off Master Eon’s magic.
“NOOOO!” Kaos screeched as a ball of light plucked him and Glumshanks from the ground. “You may have won today, Eon! But I, KAOOOOS, shall return, and then you shall see how baaaaaaaaaaaad I am.”
Spyro snickered. “What was that, Kaos?”
Kaos opened his mouth to reply but could only manage a surprised bleat.
“Turn my librarian into a sheep, will you?” Master Eon said. “Let’s see how the two of you like it!”
In front of the amazed Skylanders, Kaos and Glumshanks started spinning around and around, faster and faster. Finally the ball of light popped, leaving two startled sheep suspended in midair.
“Ha!” Food Fight laughed. “Like peas in a pod!”
There was one difference, though. The sheep on the left was covered in coarse black wool, while the one on the right was decidedly green.
“No wonder they look so sheepish,” Smolderdash said with a grin, “considering all the trouble they’ve caused.”
“Yeah,” agreed Spyro. “Maybe this’ll give them a new fleece on life!”
Master Eon smiled, his staff still glowing, at the transformed tyrant and his baaing butler. “Trigger Happy, are you ready to send them home?”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!” gabbled the Skylander, sliding an explosive pot of gold underneath the sheep’s frantically scrabbling legs. “Blam, blam, lamb!”
BANG!
The pot detonated, sending the two sheep flying into the air and far away from the Citadel. As the Skylanders watched them go, they were sure they heard Kaos scream one final warning:
“I’ll be baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!”
The Skylanders cheered, but Spyro noticed that Food Fight was staring thoughtfully into the sky.
“What’s up?”
“That fruit-loop means it, doesn’t he?” the Life Skylander said. “No matter how many times we defeat Kaos, he always comes back!”
“Yeah, but we’re always waiting for him,” Spyro said with a smile. “Right, Trigger Happy?”
Trigger Happy jumped onto the dragon’s back and cheered as Spyro soared into the air. “Right! Skylanders united!” the Tech Skylander cried. “Pow! Pow! Pow!”
Far away, outside Kaos’s foul Kastle, Kaos and Glumshanks tumbled from the sky. They landed in a woolly heap, and Master Eon’s spell finally began to wear off. With a pop, their heads returned to normal . . . but their bottoms were still distinctly sheepish.
“I can’t believe we lost—again!” Kaos said, tottering into the Kastle on his hooves. “It’s your fault, of course, Glumshanks.”
“Of course, sir,” said the Troll, following close behind. He’d probably be lookin
g at a week or more in the dungeon for his part in Kaos’s failure.
Suddenly, the evil Portal Master stopped short, and Glumshanks only just avoided barging into him.
“What is this?” Kaos asked, peering suspiciously at the large package that lay in the middle of the entrance hall. With a wiggle of his fingers, the package magically floated into the air and started to unwrap. Seconds later, the paper dropped to the floor to reveal . . .
“A book!” Kaos squealed, scampering forward. “And not just any book.”
The Portal Master plucked the heavy-looking volume from the air. “I forgot I’d ordered this. You can keep your Books of Power—and your stupid masks, too! This is what we’ve been waiting for, Glumshanks!”
“What is it?” the Troll asked, peering over his master’s shoulder. Kaos spun around, revealing the book’s ominous title.
“The Horrendous Horror of Hideous Horribleness?” Glumshanks read, still none the wiser. “What in Skylands is that?”
“Victory!” Kaos hissed, hugging the book to his weedy chest and cackling the latest evil cackle in his long line of evil cackles. “Victory will be MIIINE!”
“Enjoy your undeserved glory while you can, SKYBLUNDERERS—because something wicked this way comes. Something really, really, really super wicked. You are all DOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!”
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