Lightning Rod Faces the Cyclops Queen

by Unknown

  “Tell me the password or I WILL SMASH THIS PLANT INTO A MILLION LITTLE PIECES.”

  “Smash it then!” roared the queen. “I will never reveal the password!”

  “I will,” came a tiny little voice. “I’ll tell you the password. Just don’t smash me!”

  Kaos looked at the plant and laughed a wicked laugh. “Nothing can stop me now!” he crowed. “The Air segment will be mine, MINE, MIIIIIIIIIINE!”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Rod Works

  It Out

  High in the tower, Drobot was watching the scene unfold.

  “Kaos is going to open the door,” he reported. “I estimate we have three minutes and forty-two seconds before this tower is swarming with Drow.”

  When no one replied, the dragon turned around and sighed. Pop Fizz seemed oblivious to the imminent danger and was hopping about, ogling the animals behind the bars. He looked as excited as a troll in a dynamite factory.

  Rod, on the other hand, was staring at the scrap of glowing paper in his hand, deep in thought.

  “Did you not hear? Kaos is on his way—OW!”

  Something clanged off Drobot’s helmet. He spun around as another tiny missile whizzed toward him. He watched it land on the ground next to him. A Drow coin. But who was throwing them?

  He peered out of the window and a smile spread over his face. Down below, all eyes were on Kaos. They hadn’t noticed Double Trouble raise the Drow zeppelin’s anchor with a blast of Eldritch energy, hadn’t spotted Flynn take the wheel, hadn’t even twigged that the airship was rising slowly to the tower window. On the deck, Cali was just about to chuck another coin but, when she saw she had Drobot’s attention, she waved happily.

  “Rod,” said Drobot. “We could use the zeppelin to transport the whale.”

  But Rod still wasn’t listening. Instead, he was pressing the paper against the tower wall, watching as it flared even more brightly.

  “Rod! What are you doing?”

  Finally, the Storm Titan turned to face the dragon, an urgent look in his eyes.

  “Silence!” he boomed. “I know what we need to do!”

  In the square, Kaos was still laughing manically. “All power will be mine. Bwa-ha-ha-HAAAAAA!”

  “Um, Lord Kaos,” said Glumshanks, already cringing from the rebuke he was sure to receive. “Shouldn’t we celebrate after we’ve been told the password and entered the tower?”

  “WHAAAAAT?” screamed Kaos. “Can’t an evil Portal Master savor his moment of victory?”

  “Milk it, more like,” said the queen.

  Flashing her a vicious look, Kaos snapped his fingers and the potted plant became the wimpy king again. “Tell me the password,” Kaos sneered, obviously enjoying the fact that he could tower over someone for once. “Tell me the password now, or I will . . .”

  “Pipsqueak,” said the king.

  “WHAAAAT DID YOU CALL MEEEEEE?!?” yelled Kaos, incensed.

  “No, you don’t understand,” the king sniffed. “The password is Pipsqueak . . . my name.”

  “Oh,” Kaos said, instantly regaining his composure. “That’s different then. So all I have to do is . . .”

  “Say the magic word and the doors to the menagerie will open.”

  “No point,” said Glumshanks, looking over Kaos’s shoulder.

  “What do you mean ‘no point,’ you ignoramus?” shrieked Kaos. “Of course there’s a point! Ultimate power is the point.”

  “Yes, Lord Kaos, but I meant that there’s no point as the doors are already open.”

  Kaos spun around and gasped. The doors had opened a crack and someone was popping his head through the gap. That someone was Pop Fizz.

  “You might want to look up,” said Pop Fizz, before flashing a winning smile and slamming the doors shut once again.

  For once, Kaos did what he was told, and saw Lightning Rod hanging out of the window.

  “Hello, little man,” the Storm Titan bellowed. “You desire the Land Whale, do you not?”

  “It’s mine!” Kaos screamed back. “And you won’t stop me taking it.”

  “Excellent,” Rod shouted back. “If you want the whale, you shall have the whale.”

  “What do you mean, he can have it?” spluttered Drobot. The dragon couldn’t believe what the Storm Titan was doing. Rod had rushed into the Land Whale’s tank and, with supreme effort, had somehow managed to pull the still-dazed creature out of its chamber.

  “None of this computes.”

  Lightning Rod didn’t reply. Amazingly, unbelievably, he strained against the weight of the whale and began to swing the beast around by its tail. Moving slowly at first, it soon built up speed, spinning like the hammer he’d thrown at the Storm Games.

  “Get . . . away . . . from . . . the . . . window,” Rod growled as he whizzed around, the whale becoming a big gray blur. Drobot scampered out of the way and, when he was clear, Rod let go.

  The whale shot forward. It was far too big to pass through the window, so it just smashed through the wall. As Drobot watched, the beast soared through the air, narrowly missing the zeppelin, and heading out toward the Sea of Storms.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Follow That Whale

  “Brock didn’t know whales could fly,” said Brock, dumbstruck by the sight of the blubbering beast zipping through the air high above.

  “MY WHALE!” screamed Kaos and the queen in unison.

  It had already almost disappeared from view.

  “What has that fool done?” shouted Kaos, not knowing whether to rant or cry. “We need to get after it. BACK TO THE SHIP!”

  “That may be a problem!” gulped Glumshanks, pointing at the stolen zeppelin that was now moored by the gaping hole in the side of the tower.

  Kaos’s face turned a particularly nasty shade of purple.

  “Gah! We’ll just have to travel by foot then. Brock, carry me.” The Goliath Drow obediently hoisted the Portal Master, none too graciously, over his shoulder.

  “The rest of you,” Kaos continued, so intent on his prize that he forgave the indignity for a moment. “FOLLOW THAT WHALE!”

  As the Drow rushed from the city, Flynn threw a rope from the zeppelin over to the tower.

  “How about some warning next time you’re chucking whales around, Big Guy?” the pilot suggested to Lightning Rod. “You nearly took out our crow’s nest.”

  “I still do not understand,” Drobot whirred, his face a picture of confusion. “You just threw away the Air segment.”

  “No, I didn’t,” insisted Rod, producing the scrap of paper from his belt. It was still glowing, brighter than ever. “It was not the Land Whale that was making the parchment of power glow. Behold!” He slapped it against the wall and the light intensified. “It was the tower!” said Drobot, the penny finally dropping.

  “Made of Cyclopnite, the heaviest stone ever mined,” Rod reminded him. “This tower is the heaviest thing on Skylands.”

  “So Kaos . . .”

  “Is on a whale of a wild goose chase!”

  “Ooga!” exclaimed Double Trouble, waving his staff and spinning into a victory dance.

  “But how are we supposed to get an entire tower back to the archive?” asked Cali.

  “I think I can help with that,” said a voice from behind them. Rod turned to see Pop Fizz brandishing a bottle. The Storm Titan looked suspiciously at the murky liquid sloshing around inside.

  “What is that, alchemist?”

  “Oh, just a little brew I’ve concocted from some of the animals in this place. They’re amazing. Some of the rarest and most potent creatures in all of Skylands. All it needed was some rhino feathers, a splash of pig-fish milk, a little cow-snail slime, and a few scales from those nice gorillas back there. As the queen said, it’s amazing what you can find in the menagerie!”


  Lightning Rod grimaced.

  “And you mean to drink such a disgusting brew?”

  Pop Fizz laughed. “Of course I’m not going to drink it.”

  Rod let out a sigh of relief, but it was short-lived.

  Pop Fizz grinned a knowing grin. “You are!”

  “What are you doing?” squealed the Cyclops Queen as her minions pulled at Brock’s expert knots.

  “They’re trying to release you, my sickly sweet,” simpered the king.

  “Forget about me!” the queen screamed. “GET THOSE SKYLANDERS OUT OF MY TOWER!”

  “You heard the woman,” the king commanded, before realizing that all their guards had either been magicked away or fled. “You just can’t get the staff these . . . ooooh!”

  Beneath their feet, the ground shuddered.

  “Just when I thought today couldn’t get any worse,” whined the queen, “we have an earthquake.”

  “I think it may be more than just an earthquake, my dumpy darling,” admitted the king, noticing the cloud that had started to spread out from under the tower doors. “I think we’ve got a bigger problem.”

  And bigger it was. The menagerie tower was being lifted into the air by a huge, massive, ginormous figure: Lightning Rod.

  “I take it all back,” the Storm Titan bellowed, his voice the volume of a thousand thunderstorms. “That potion was delicious. True ambrosia of the ancients!”

  High above, Pop Fizz was hanging from the gaping hole in the side of the tower. “And it did the trick, too. One supersize Storm Titan ready to go!”

  “Let’s get this tower back to the archive,” Drobot called down.

  “Booga, booga boo!” yelled Double Trouble.

  If a normal-size Lightning Rod was strong, a humongous Lightning Rod was a hundred times stronger. As the queen sobbed, Rod hefted the tower high into the sky and away from the city, the Drow zeppelin soaring close behind.

  “My beautiful collection!” she wailed. “Gone forever!”

  “Well, at least I won’t sneeze anymore,” remarked the king, smiling for the first time anyone could remember. “For every cloud, there’s a silver lining . . .”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The Air Element

  Back at the Eternal Archive, Pop Fizz was coaxing a scaled gorilla onto the Portal of Power. When it was in the center of the raised platform, Master Eon waved his hand and the creature vanished, sent back to where it belonged.

  “That is that,” announced Drobot. “Every specimen from the queen’s collection has been sent home. Mission accomplished.”

  “Not quite,” said Cali. “We still have THAT thing to deal with.”

  She was pointing up at the great stone tower that was still standing where Lightning Rod had dropped it—beside the walls of the Eternal Archive.

  “Allow me,” said Eon, raising his arms once again and closing his eyes. Standing beside Cali, the now normal-size Rod felt his beard tingle as the air itself seemed to crackle with energy. The menagerie tower was bathed in brilliant white light, so bright that the Skylanders had to shield their eyes. When they finally looked again, the building had been replaced by a tiny wooden fragment that floated down to Eon’s open palm.

  “The Air segment is safe,” Eon announced proudly. “Well done, my Skylanders.”

  “Hey, it was nothing,” said Flynn.

  “Nothing?” repeated Drobot, not sure he was hearing this right.

  “Okay, okay, I admit it.” Flynn laughed, raising his hands. “It was amazing. My trouble is that I’m too modest.”

  “You were all amazing,” said Rod, gathering his friends into a massive bear hug. For once, the Storm Titan didn’t want to hog all the limelight. “I could not have completed the quest without you.”

  “I don’t know,” Cali said with a giggle. “You looked like a pretty big hero to me!”

  Eon smiled as he watched his Skylanders celebrate, but his expression faltered as he looked down at the fragment of the mask in his hand. There was one thing that he still didn’t understand. How had Kaos known where the segment was hidden? It made no sense. He sighed sadly. The mystery would have to wait for another day. In the meantime, the Air fragment needed to be stored safely in the vault.

  “Squirmgrub?” Eon called, looking around for the Warrior Librarian. “Could you take this down to . . .”

  But Squirmgrub was nowhere to be seen. In a secret chamber, deep in the bowels of the Eternal Archive, the Warrior Librarian Squirmgrub carried a small wooden box to a table. Placing it down, he opened the lid and carefully lifted a crystal ball from inside.

  Nestled in his robotic hands, the crystal began to glow, smoke swirling inside the glass. The uncanny mist twisted and turned before parting to reveal a face—a particularly nasty face.

  “Well?” snapped Kaos from within the communication crystal.

  “My Lord,” Squirmgrub whispered, not wanting to be overheard. “The Skylanders have the Air fragment.”

  “I know that, fool. I realized that whale wasn’t the segment as soon as it ATE HALF MY DROW!” the Portal Master snapped. “But never mind that. What about the next fragment? The Earth fragment?”

  Squirmgrub shook his heavy, mechanical head.

  “The Book of Power has yet to reveal its location,” he said. “But when it does . . .”

  “You will tell me immediately,” Kaos commanded, a wicked grin flickering over his cruel lips. “Like the good little spy you are . . .”

  The sound of Kaos’s demented laughter echoed around the chamber.

  Chapter One

  Professor Puck’s Fantastic Fair

  “Roll up, roll up! Professor Puck’s Fantastic Fair is in town. You will be amazed. You will be astonished. You won’t believe your eyes!”

  Gurglefin the Gillman rubbed his webbed hands together with glee. He’d been waiting for this moment all year. Professor Puck’s fair was famous throughout Skylands. Everyone knew about it. The crazy games, the fin-raising rides, the strange sights. And the delicious smells. Oh, the smells! Doughnuts, popcorn and pretzels, toffee apples, candyfloss and gingerbread. His mouth was watering at the very thought.

  The only problem was what to try first. Everywhere he turned, Gurglefin was presented with fresh treats and new opportunities for fun and excitement. Lights flashed, music played, and carny folk called out, trying to entice him to their various stalls.

  Then something caught his eye. There, behind the Helter-Skelter and the Hook-a-Chompy, stood a small, modest-looking red tent, with a hand-painted sign hung over its dark entrance.

  MADAME DESTINY:

  FORTUNES TOLD

  FUTURES PREDICTED

  Yes, thought Gurglefin. That’s the place to start. Madame Destiny can tell me what I’d enjoy most.

  He waddled over excitedly, silver coins at the ready with which to cross Madame Destiny’s palm. There she was, hunched over a crystal ball in the mouth of the tent. She was wearing a dark, crimson scarf around her head and a pink, sequined veil across her face. As he drew nearer, Gurglefin slowed. There was something sinister about the old woman; something not quite right. Maybe it was her piercing red eyes or the stubby fingers that she waved above the crystal.

  Or maybe it was her smell. Phew! Did she ever reek!

  But, after coming this far, Gurglefin was in no mood to be a scaredy-catfish. This was just a harmless bit of fun, a harmless old woman. Nothing to be afraid of at all.

  He crept nearer the stall and cleared his throat.

  “Er, h-hello,” he croaked. “Madame Destiny?”

  The old hag didn’t look up. He tried again.

  “Madame Destiny, I was wondering if you could—”

  “What do you want?” the woman snapped, throwing her arms around the crystal as if trying to hide it from view.

  “J-just to have
my fortune told,” stammered Gurglefin.

  “And why should I do that?” she shrieked.

  “Er, because you’re a fortune teller?” he suggested, holding out two coins in a shaking hand.

  The old woman growled, looked at the coins, and then looked at Gurglefin. Without warning, she shot out a hand, snatched the coins away, and snapped at the nervy Gillman.

  “You want to know what the future holds?” she barked, fixing him with a wicked glare.

  Gurglefin just nodded, wondering if he really did.

  “Are you sure?” she teased, her veil shifting as if she was smiling underneath.

  “I g-guess so . . .”

  “Then I predict you will come to a STICKY END!” Madame Destiny screamed. “NOW, SLING YER HOOK, FISHFACE!”

  Who is the mysterious (and downright grouchy) Madame Destiny?

  Why is sweet stuff exploding?

  And can Terrafin find the Earth segment of the Mask of Power?

  Find out all this and more in . . .

  TERRAFIN

  BATTLES THE

  BOOM BROTHERS