by Onk Beakman
“Golly,” Squirmgrub blustered, crossing, then uncrossing, and then recrossing his mechanical arms. “The Earth segment. That’s interesting. Okay, let’s have a look, shall we?”
He bustled past, his telescopic eyes scanning the bookshelves. “I think we’ll need volume eight hundred fifty-four. It should be up here somewhere.”
“Between volumes eight hundred fifty-three and eight hundred fifty-five?” Terrafin asked impatiently. He just couldn’t bring himself to trust this guy.
Squirmgrub laughed, a high-pitched nervous titter. “Yes, exactly. Well done, Terrabin.”
“Terrafin,” the dirt shark corrected with a snarl.
“Sorry, yes, that’s what I meant.” The Warrior Librarian put his hands on his hips. “Oh dear. Deary, deary me. That is a shame.”
“What is?” asked Eon, frowning.
“Volume eight hundred fifty-four seems to be missing. Look.” Squirmgrub pointed to a gap on the shelf between volumes eight hundred and fifty-three and eight hundred and fifty-five. “That is most irregular. I will have to report it to the chief curator. Yes, I will have to do that right away. Sorry I couldn’t help you. Shall we go?”
But Master Eon didn’t move. He was just standing there, staring at the gap where the book should be. “How disappointing. Especially as it’s the very volume we’re after. It’s almost as if someone’s removed it on purpose.”
Terrafin was sure that the color drained from the robot’s paintwork.
“R-r-removed it on purpose? Oh, I doubt that, Master Eon. No Warrior Librarian would dream of doing such a thing.”
“I’m pleased to hear it. But it doesn’t matter. The Encyclopedia Skylandia automatically updates. All we need to do is look up volume eight hundred fifty-four under V . . .”
“And it’ll tell us who stole it!” cut in Terrafin. “Hey, that’s kinda smart.”
“I’m a kinda smart kinda guy,” said Master Eon with a wry smile as he ran a finger along the shelf. “Now, any idea where I’d find V, Squirmgrub?”
“Um, well, I-I-I’m not exactly sure . . . ,” stammered the Warrior Librarian, wringing his robotic hands together. “I could always check, but . . . Oh, look!”
Eon turned, fixing the robot with a steely gaze. “Have you found something?”
The Warrior Librarian plucked a book off the shelf. “It’s volume eight hundred fifty-four,” he announced. “Someone must have put it in the wrong place.”
“How careless of them,” Eon said, holding out a hand. “But well done, Squirmgrub. May I have it?”
“Are you sure you don’t want me to find what you’re looking for?”
“No, I’m sure we can manage. You don’t mind if we take it back to the other Skylanders, do you?”
“Well . . .” Squirmgrub hesitated before finally handing over the old leather-bound book. “No, I’m sure that would be fine.”
“Thank you,” Master Eon said graciously, tucking the volume under his arm. “Come on, Terrafin. Sonic Boom, Hot Dog, and Sprocket will be waiting.”
As they walked around the corner, leaving Squirmgrub in the aisle, Terrafin leaned in close to the Portal Master.
“That was weird, Master Eon. It’s almost like Squirmgrub was—”
“Hiding the book, yes.” A shadow passed over the Portal Master’s lined face. “But I’m sure it was an honest mistake . . .”
In the encyclopedia aisle, Squirmgrub waited until he was sure that Master Eon and Terrafin were gone before pressing a button on his wrist. With a hiss of hydraulics, a secret compartment opened on his robotic arm, revealing a small sphere—like a miniature crystal ball.
Squirmgrub lifted the sphere to his mouth and whispered into it urgently. “Lord Kaos, can you hear me? The Skylanders know about the Boom Brothers. They’re on their way . . .”
Chapter Eight
Junk Mountain
Squirmgrub was right—the Skylanders were on their way. According to the Encyclopedia Skylandia, the Boom Brothers were a pair of robots who specialized in explosions. Really big explosions. No one had ever seen them, but their factory—the legendary Explosive Emporium—was located in the Junk Mountains.
And, as Terrafin was about to find out, the Junk Mountains weren’t exactly a scenic locale.
“Whoa,” the dirt shark said as Master Eon’s Portal delivered them to the side of one of the mountains. “Look at this place. It’s ugly with a capital UG.”
“What are you talking about?” Sprocket gasped, a huge smile spreading across her face. “It’s amazing!”
Hot Dog and Sonic Boom didn’t say anything. They just stared openmouthed (or, in Sonic’s case, open-beaked).
The Junk Mountains stretched as far as the eye could see, huge majestic peaks jutting into a hard, gray sky. But these weren’t mountains of rock or even ice. They were mountains of trash. Everywhere the group looked were broken machines, worn-out contraptions, and mangled thingamabobs.
Instead of trees, there were old twisted antennae, and instead of bushes, there were just heaps of tangled cables.
To Sprocket it looked like heaven. She was itching to dive in and see what she could build from all the discarded gadgets, what amazing inventions could be cobbled together from the piles of wrecked widgets.
But now wasn’t the time. They had a job to do.
“So which way?” barked Hot Dog, scrambling up a crag of smashed-up stuff.
“The encyclopedia said the Explosive Emporium was at the top of the tallest mountain,” remembered Terrafin. “So I guess we’re climbing.”
“Let me look,” said Sonic, spreading her powerful wings and taking to the chilly air. The Skylanders watched as she shot up the side of the slope.
“I can see it,” she shouted down. “Jutting out of the summit. A gigantic tower.”
Terrafin peered upward. Yes, he could see it, too, rising into the sky high above them. Its walls were bright red and looked like metal glinting in the harsh sun. It resembled a huge rocket, supported on one side by what appeared to be some extremely rickety scaffolding.
“That’s a long way up,” Terrafin said, wondering if he could burrow his way to the summit. He tested the scrap-covered ground with his toe. Hmmm. Maybe not. He didn’t want the giant mounds of twisted machines to crumble beneath their feet. “We better start climbing.”
“I’ll fly ahead to see if there are any—”
Sonic Boom didn’t finish her sentence. A bashed-up oil barrel tumbled out of the sky and smacked her right between the eyes. The griffin let out a shocked screech and plunged down, stunned by the blow. Terrafin leaped up, caught her in his strong arms, and somersaulted, crashing back to the side of the mountain.
“You okay, SB?” he asked as the griffin shook her aching head.
“I was surprised, that’s all,” she replied, before her eyes widened. “Terrafin, look out! Above us!”
The dirt shark glanced up to see the remains of a rusty robot roaring down the mountain toward them. He threw up an arm to protect them, but Sonic was way ahead of him. A quick blast of shock waves smashed the wreckage into a thousand pieces, but they weren’t out of danger just yet.
It was raining garbage. Clumps of dented metal and battered machine parts were crashing down from above.
“What’s going on?” woofed Hot Dog as he jumped to the side to avoid a plummeting kitchen sink.
“It’s almost like someone is chucking junk down at us,” yelled Sprocket as a cracked toilet whistled by.
“Someone is!” growled Terrafin as a face loomed into view above them. A huge, ugly face. A huge, ugly, angry-looking face. A huge, ugly, angry-looking face made up of twisted, worn metal.
“RAAAAGH!” the monster bellowed, before throwing another fistful of busted machinery toward the Skylanders.
“It’s a Trash Ogre!” shouted Terrafin, punch
ing the debris out of the way. “And it’s trying to knock us off the side of the mountain!”
Chapter Nine
The Trash Ogre
A barrage of bashed-up machinery bounced down the mountain. No sooner had the Skylanders blasted it away than the ogre’s four arms snatched up more junk, ready to hurl it at them.
And its aim was getting better! They wouldn’t last much longer.
“Cover me,” Sprocket said, leaping forward. “It’s building time!”
As the other Skylanders punched, screeched, and coughed up Fire Barks, Sprocket went to work, her arms moving so fast they began to blur. She grabbed this broken gizmo and that, fashioning them into a wall of garbage. In a flash, she was finished and had stepped back to examine her handiwork.
“You’ve built a shield!” exclaimed Hot Dog happily, his tail wagging.
“A rampart of rubbish,” she announced, looking thoroughly pleased with herself until there was a large crash from the other side. “But it won’t hold for long. How are we going to get past that ogre?”
“Perhaps we can get him to come past us,” said Sonic Boom, a smile spreading across her beak. “Sprocket, can you reinforce your barrier? Make it as strong as possible?”
Sprocket adjusted her goggles. “Of course I can.”
“Then do it,” Sonic said. “Terrafin, Hot Dog, can you help her?”
“Sure thing,” said Terrafin. “But what are you going to do, SB?”
“Give our ogre friend a taste of his own medicine.”
With that, Sonic Boom beat her wings and flew up from behind Sprocket’s shield.
As soon as the Trash Ogre spotted Sonic, it started flinging garbage at her. She threw herself into a spiral to avoid the falling junk, and soared higher and higher. Sonic shot over the monster’s misshapen head and climbed toward a ledge high above. Hoping that she’d given Sprocket enough time to reinforce the shield, she opened her beak and screamed at the top of her lungs.
Now, the top of Sonic Boom’s lungs is a very high place, indeed. A beam of pure sound waves slammed into the side of the mountain, but the griffin wasn’t finished yet. She pulled back, looping around for another pass, and let out another screech.
Beneath her, the ogre stopped throwing trash and scratched its head. Why was the griffin attacking the mountain? What had the mountain ever done to her?
Then the ogre heard a worrying rumble. Its mouth went dry, and its metallic heart sank as it realized what she was trying to do. Above his head, the side of the mountain was moving. Piles of junk were tumbling down toward him.
Sonic Boom had set off an avalanche of garbage!
The Trash Ogre didn’t have time to react. With an earsplitting roar, the wave of broken machines flooded over the monster, knocking it from its large flat feet. As Sonic hovered in the air like a hawk, the ogre was sent crashing down the side of the mountain. With a thud, it bounced off Sprocket’s shield and tumbled all the way to the valley, several miles below.
The noise of the avalanche was deafening, even by Sonic Boom’s standards. When it had passed, an eerie silence fell over the mountain range. The griffin’s eyes narrowed. It was too quiet. Had her friends survived the avalanche? Or had they been washed down the side of the mountain along with the ogre? Sonic swooped down, trying not to notice how much of a beating Sprocket’s makeshift barrier had taken.
What if she’d gotten it wrong? What if she’d sent her fellow Skylanders to their doom?
“Way to go, SB!” yelled Terrafin happily as Sonic landed beneath the barrier. “You had that joker on the ropes! He’s out for the count!”
Sprocket gave Sonic Boom a cheerful thumbs-up, while Hot Dog bounded over and licked the griffin’s cheek.
“Hey, hot stuff,” she laughed. “Don’t fry my feathers. Besides, it’s not over yet. We’ve still got to climb to the top of the mountain.”
“Yeah,” agreed Terrafin, his grin turning grim. “And bust into the Explosive Emporium!”
Chapter Ten
The Explosive Emporium
“Why can’t people build their mountaintop lairs at the bottom?” grumbled Terrafin as they finally reached the summit. They had been climbing for hours and were frozen to the bone.
Well, at least three of them were.
“Come on, slowpoke,” yapped Hot Dog as he scampered by. The combustible canine hadn’t even broken a sweat.
With a beat of her wings, Sonic Boom came to rest beside Terrafin and looked up at the scarlet tower that loomed menacingly over them.
“So what’s the plan?”
Terrafin considered this for a moment. “Tell you what. Why don’t we batter our way in, kick some troll butt, rescue Rocky, knock Kaos into the next dimension, and then think of a plan?”
“Sounds good to me,” Sonic said, beaming. “There’s only one problem I can see.”
“What’s that?”
“That huge cannon.”
Terrafin followed Sonic’s gaze and groaned as he saw a massive gun that had appeared from a hatch in the side of the tower. A massive gun that was swiveling to target them.
“Take cover!” Terrafin yelled as the cannon opened fire. Mortars slammed into the trash at their feet, exploding on impact and sending them flying into the air. Terrafin found himself shooting over the side of the mountain and tumbling into a free fall before he felt Sonic Boom’s claws close around his feet. By the time she had flown them back up to the summit, Sprocket had built a gun-o-matic and was returning fire while Hot Dog was summoning walls of fire to block the massive gun’s attack.
“We need to take out that gun.” Sonic Boom gasped as a shot whistled by her ear.
Terrafin shook his head. “No, SB. We need to take out the joker who’s firing it. Dive-burrow!”
Terrafin threw himself into the air, flipped over a passing missile, and then slammed back into the ground. Ow.
Burrowing through rusty metal was a lot harder than burrowing through earth, but he had to keep going. He’d tunnel beneath the tower walls, burst up on the other side, and wallop the troll operating the gun. Easy!
Or so he thought.
KLAAAAAANG!
Under the ground, Terrafin rubbed his aching head. He’d plowed straight into something—something very hard. Reaching out, he knocked his brass knuckles against the metal wall that plunged beneath the surface. Who builds walls underground? Oh well. He’d just have to burrow harder.
Turning on his tail, Terrafin burrowed back to where his fellow Skylanders were still battling the giant cannon. But instead of breaking the surface, he started tunneling around and around in circles, picking up speed, his dorsal fin flattening as he swung back to rip toward the tower walls. Preparing for impact, he closed his eyes, clenched his jaw, and . . .
CRASH!
Terrafin was through. With a shout of triumph, he threw himself up and burst from the floor. He’d picked up so much speed that he didn’t stop, smashing through the tower and appearing behind the troll operating the cannon.
The Mace Major twisted in his seat, his eyes wide with surprise. The last thing he expected to see was one of Terrafin’s massive shark-fists rushing toward him.
In fact it was the last thing he saw. The punch knocked out the troll stone-cold.
There was only one problem: The cannon was still firing. It must have been switched to automatic. Frantically, Terrafin started pressing buttons and flicking switches, but it was no good. In fact, the cannon fired even more mortar shells at his friends.
Which was the right control? Which button would turn the thing off? With a grunt of exasperation, Terrafin did the only thing he could . . . and smashed his fist into the control panel.
There was a loud crack and a shower of sparks, and finally the gun fell silent.
Terrafin threw open a window and, seconds later, Sonic Boom swooped into the
room, Hot Dog and Sprocket dangling from her claws. They were in! Now they just needed to find Rocky.
Chapter Eleven
Inside the Factory
“So,” said Sprocket. “Where to next?” “I wish I knew,” admitted Terrafin, “but I’m open to ideas. This place is massive.”
Sonic Boom was about to reply when she noticed Hot Dog. The fiery pooch was sniffing around in the corridor outside the cannon room.
“Hot Dog?” she asked. “What have you found?”
The pup barked excitedly, embers flicking off his tail as it wagged. “Ruff-ruff. Rocky’s been this way. Look.”
Terrafin peered closer. Hot Dog was nudging a pile of tiny, smooth pebbles with his steaming nose.
“Hey, I’ve seen those before,” he realized.
“They’re the pebbles Rocky sweats when he’s nervous,” remembered Sonic Boom.
“And there’s more,” barked Hot Dog as he bounded down the corridor, his internal fire lighting up the dark passage. “Lots more.”
“That’s a great idea, Hot Dog,” Sonic Boom praised the Fire Skylander, who was now beaming with pride. “If we follow the pebbles . . .”
“We’ll find Rocky!” cheered Terrafin.
The Skylanders crept through the Boom Brothers’ factory, following the trail of pebbles. All around, in massive workshops, robots and trolls were making weird and not-so-wonderful weapons. There were bombs in all shapes and sizes. Bombs that looked like hamburgers. Bombs that looked like mushrooms. Bombs that looked like clocks and books and treasure chests and sheep. There were even bombs that looked like sheep sitting on treasure chests, reading books while checking the time and eating mushroom-filled hamburgers (which, admittedly, did look a bit silly). There were robots fitting fuses here, robots setting timers there, and trolls packing explosives into crates everywhere.
The Skylanders were almost seen a couple of times but managed to hide behind packing crates or piles of exploding yo-yos. They climbed higher and higher, sneaking up ladders and darting through doorways when no one was looking. And all the time the factory echoed to the sound of announcements being made over the loudspeakers.
