"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—OOF!"

As everybody finally hit the ground, they all moaned and looked down to find themselves on… A mattress? Yes, a firm white mattress with a few holes and springs loose, but it was a mattress nonetheless, and it did break their fall, so that was something to be grateful for.

"What was that?" Chihiro asked as she got up and rubbed her sore shoulders. "One minute those things had us cornered, next thing we know we're falling down a pit!"

"Beats me," Spyro replied as he jumped off the mattress and stretched as well as he could in that stuffy room, "But at least we got out of there—" Spyro looked up at the now-closed hole and frowned "—now if only we knew where we were."

As the other three jumped off, they tried to look around for any clues or hints to their locations, but it was no use. Everything here was so dark that it was hard to see much of anything at all!

"Maybe I should shed some light on things," Spyro held up a paw. "One light source, coming right—"

"Is that them?"

"Have they finally come for us?"

"What's going on?"

Spyro whipped his head around the dark, dark room. "Did you guys hear that?"

"Yeah!" Chihiro remarked as she stepped back. "It kinda sounds like… Voices?"

While everybody looked around, a chill fell over the room as if a ghost had found their way in, or if someone was watching them…

"Is somebody there?"

Chihiro creaked her head around, and saw eyeballs. Lots of eyeballs, all of which fixed on them!

"AIEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Chihiro screamed as she scrambled back onto the mattress and pointed at the eyeballs. "WHAT ARE THOSE THINGS?"

Alerted by Chihiro's scream, Wrecking Ball, Spyro and Prism Break all got into offensive stances and prepared to attack! Whatever those things were, they certainly weren't going to get the best of them!

"It's really them!" cried a voice with a faint British accent, "The Skylanders!"

With this spoken, somebody clapped their hands and the lights came on! The room's true identity was revealed, but it was nothing fancy; it was just a simple, large, stone room that looked more like a basement than anything. It bore quite the resemblance, at least, with all its cobwebs and insects and dark lightless tunnels to what was probably nowhere. Those eyeballs, meanwhile, were cyclopes of all shapes and sizes!

Chihiro let out a sharp gasp as she drew herself into an attacking position as well, tension thick in the room until…

"THE SKYLANDERS ARE HERE TO SAVE US!" the cyclopes cried as they raced forward and swept the quartet up in their arms. "HIP HIP!"

"WHAT?" Chihiro exclaimed as she lifted to the top of the crowd, but she got no response—rather, they tossed her up in the air!

"HOORAY!" the cyclopes exclaimed as Chihiro, Spyro, Wrecking Ball and Prism Break fell back down onto the mattress while the crowd dispersed.

"Uh, thanks for the warm welcome," Spyro sputtered as he brushed off his chest, "but, what's going on here?"

"Yeah, I'd like to know too!" Chihiro exclaimed as she crossed her arms.

"Me three!" Prism Break called from the back of the crowd as he made a stony frown—literally.

"Uh, me four!" Wrecking Ball chimed in as he bounced up and down. "Me four!"

Chihiro pouted and grumbled a bit, but her eyes trailed down to the floors where the doll she claimed earlier now rested in perfect peace. "Whoops, you must've fallen out when we landed!" Chihiro remarked as she jumped off of the mattress and lifted the doll from the grimy floors. "Sorry 'bout that!"

Chihiro wiped the grime off of the doll with her sleeve, them and up to see a worn-looking cyclops woman draw towards Chihiro from the crowds. She took a step back in response before she took a look at the woman's gaze—which was fixed on the doll Chihiro held instead!

"That doll," the woman croaked as she took it out of Chihiro's hands and turned it around, "It couldn't be…"

The woman only broke down in sobs while she held the doll close. Chihiro took on a solemn aura as she stepped towards the woman and gently rested a hand on the woman's shoulder.

"Uh, are you alright, miss?" Chihiro asked as the woman wiped away her tears.

"This doll…" The woman took a solemn gaze at the doll as her lip quivered. "It belonged to my little boy. He, he was going to turn five soon, he said he'd invite all his friends, and they'd all play stoneball together…"

Chihiro pursed her lips, and the glisten of worry in her eyes made it clear that she was almost scared to hear what happened next. "What happened to him?"

"He was playing outside with his friends, and made up this silly rhyme insulting the king and his appearance. It was a childish thing, the kind of thing you'd expect a boy his age to say." The woman's voice turned hoarse as she buried her face into the doll's soft plush. "The guards overheard him and reported it to the king, and, he was furious! He, he, his life was taken away from me, right then and there!"

As the woman broke into sobs once more, a shocked Chihiro drew the woman into a tight hug and gently stroked the woman's back as she buried her face into Chihiro's chest.

"I'm, I'm so sorry."

Spyro, Wrecking Ball and Prism Break's jaws dropped wide open while a somberness fell across the room. "Is that true?" Spyro asked as he stepped forward.

"I'm afraid it is," said another, more serious voice as another cyclops drew out from the shadows.

This one was a medium-height, teal-skinned one dressed in muddy clothes that accentuated their bloodshot eye and tired demeanor. Despite this, they carried an aura of leadership with their presence. "If you'll allow me to introduce myself," the cyclops said as they walked forward and placed a hand on their chest, "my name is Eyesha. I'm what you could call the leader of this group."

Eyesha cleared their throat.

"All of us here…" Eyesha drew a hand around the crowd of cyclopes, who looked noticeably more tired and scared than before. "We were all driven underground for speaking against that tyrant who dares call himself a king."

As Eyesha gritted their teeth, Spyro frowned and flew up to face them.

"Dares calls himself a king?" Spyro asked, "what happened here? I've met the king here before, and he was…"

Eyesha shook their head and growled. "Nothing like that, I know. That dictator was a puppet put in place by Kaos himself!"

Another round of gasps came, but only from the Skylanders and Chihiro—everybody else only held their heads in sorrow.

"When Kaos destroyed the Core of Light, the Crystal Eye was flung back to our homelands." Eyesha stepped over to the mattress and sat down as they heaved a sigh. "We had planned to keep it safe for when the Skylanders would arrive and take it back to its rightful place, but—" Eyesha hung their head further down "—Kaos had other ideas."

Eyesha trembled as they spoke, and their body filled with a kind of rage that could be felt by everyone around. "Kaos's army stormed out homelands and demanded that we not only relent to him, but give him the Crystal Eye instead, and when we refused, he took it by force, killed our king and put that puppet in his place!"

As Eyesha looked up and saw the look of utter shock on Spyro's face, they only shook their head.

"That's not the end of the story, though, I'm afraid. Even since then, that puppet has been forcing our people to fight in Kaos's armies so they can take prisoners and make them do all his dirty work." Eyesha staggered off of the mattress. "His first order of business was to have an elaborate fortress built for the Crystal Eye to keep it safe for Kaos."

"We've done all we could," piped up the woman who sobbed in Chihiro's shoulder earlier as she wiped away her tears, "but we're useless against his armies!"

"But!" A glimmer of hope shone in Eyesha’s eye. "Now that the Skylanders are here, we finally stand a chance!"

"I knew hacking those surveillance eyeballs would come in handy someday!" cried a voice from the cyclopes crowd.

"So that's what that was!" Chihiro exclaimed as she looked over at the crowd. "I thought I felt someone watching me!"

Chihiro's expression remained surprised for a few moments, but she coughed into her hand and let go of the cyclops woman. As she faced the crowds and dusted herself off, Chihiro gained the utmost of serious looks on her face, now filled with a kind of resolve that great warriors possessed in the heat of battle.

"As guardians of all that is good, I promise," Chihiro proclaimed in her most official and serious voice, "we'll liberate you all from Kaos's grubby clutches! Just say the word and we'll do it!"

Excited gasps and cheers were heard from the crowds of cyclopes, and even Eyesha broke out into a smile as they watched Chihiro.

"Very well then," Eyesha said as they ushered their hands towards a few cyclopes, "bring out the diagrams!"

The cyclops nodded and marched away, but quickly returned with what appeared to be a giant map that laid out what seemed like the entire island in the most elaborate detail one could think of.

"Insider?" Eyesha prompted.

"That's my name, don't wear it out," said a small cyclops dressed in camouflage as they retrieved a pointer stick from their pocket and tapped it on the map. "Now, the Crystal Eye's treasury is sealed away by the two Seeing Towers. Each Seeing Tower is powered by four switches that fill it with the magic energy it uses to keep the structure afloat. Destroy those, and the towers are toast."

"Sounds easy enough!" Chihiro exclaimed as she smacked a fist against her palm and examined the map herself.

"I wouldn't be so certain." Insider slapped their stick against their palm, and went back to dragging it across the map. "The path to the first tower is guarded by intricate puzzles that take the most scholarly of the bunch to solve, and the second is heavily guarded by elite cyclopes militia. We've got teams prepped, but we'll need some extra hands on deck."

Chihiro frowned as she examined the map further, while Spyro flitted over to her side and looked over the map. The two of them hummed for a few seconds, looked at each other, and made firm nods.

"Alright!" Spyro proclaimed as he and Chihiro looked over the crowds, "we'll help you take down those towers! With our powers combined, I'm sure we'll be able to do it!"

The crowds cheered once more, but paused as Prism Break and Wrecking Ball shifted through their ranks and regrouped with Spyro and Chihiro.

"Alright then, just one question." Prism Break crossed his arms together. "Who's going with who?"

Spyro hummed and rubbed a claw against his chin before he looked back up at Prism Break and Wrecking Ball. "Prism Break, you're pretty sturdy." Spyro pointed a claw towards Prism Break and drew it over towards Wrecking Ball. "Wrecks, you're good at destroying things, right?"

"Yes I am!" Wrecking Ball exclaimed as he bounced up and down with the utmost of glee, completely ignorant to the concerned glances of everyone around.

"You two can go with the second team—with your powers and experience, you'll take down those guards in no time!" Spyro said as he looked over at Chihiro. "Chihiro and I will go with team one."

"Okay, that's taken care of," Chihiro closed her eyes and crossed her arms as she made a scholarly nod, but peeped open one as she ran ahead. "Now come on! We've got an evil tyrant to take down! Who's with me?"

Cheers of agreement and excitement alike resounded all around as everyone filed into the tunnels, more than ready to take on their mission…

§

Soft whispering and quiet footsteps were the only sounds heard as the first team passed through the tunnels. Their voices raised to no more than a hushed whisper as they spoke among themselves in order to keep from drawing attention from unwanted outside sources; well, not that there were many outside sources to draw attention from. Everywhere pne went, there was nothing but stone passageways, faint light from cracks in the walls, the occasional rat as it scurried by… It was almost enough to drive someone up a wall!

"Alright, Chihiro," Spyro whispered as he looked over towards Chihiro. "What code number is this—a Skylander must never bring harm to those they hold power over without good reason?"

"Hmmm, that sounds important," Chihiro whispered back. Her voice raised a smidgen louder than Spyro's as she racked her brain. "One?"

"Two." Spyro shook his head and frowned as Chihiro pouted in the faint light. "Alright then." Spyro tilted his head towards Chihiro. "Skylanders must never practice forbidden magic—which one's that?"

Chihiro cast Spyro a pleading look."Nine?"

"Four."

As Chihiro groaned, the cyclopes who lead the crowd ahead of them quickly shushed her.

"Keep it down!" Insider scolded from the head of the group, "We can't have anybody notice we're here!"

"But—" Chihiro tilted her head "—we're the only ones—"

"My apologies, she's a bit new,." Spyro flew in front of Chihiro, turned around and frowned as she sulked, "Let's just keep practicing, alright, Chihiro?"

Chihiro grimaced as she crossed her arms, but finally she reluctantly nodded.

"Skylanders can't kill unless necessary?"

"Nine?" Chihiro frowned as Spyro shook his head, "Darn."

"It's actually one." Spyro flew around a corner and urged Chihiro forwards. "Skylanders must be diligent, courageous and kind?"

"Ooh, ooh, I know this one!" Chihiro bounced up behind Spyro and beamed, "Uhhhhh… Five?"

"Eight. Skylanders must never harm their portal masters without good reason?"

"Six?"

"Five."

So, the two of them traded questions and answers—largely incorrect answers, but answers nonetheless—as they passed through what seemed like endless dark tunnels and corridors.

"Skylanders must be willing to face any task or challenge?"

"Ten?"

"Six. Skylanders must not exploit their position for wealth or status?"

"Seven?"

"Three. Skylanders work as a team?"

"… Four?"

"Ten."

This continued on for what seemed like forever, until Chihiro finally heaved a loud groan and flopped her back onto the stone walkways. "This is gonna take me forever!" Chihiro whined as she made a look of utter defeat. "Will I ever be ready for that test?"

Chihiro looked up to Spyro as if she expected him to answer, but he was gone! He flew over to the back of the group, which crowded around what seemed like a source of light? Though it was masked by the group, a bright white light could be seen a few feet ahead. More importantly, it caught Chihiro's attention immediately. She jumped and skipped over to the rear of the crowd, and peered overhead—which was quite easy to do since they were all so short.

"Alrighty," Insider said as they grabbed hold of what seemed like a stone manhole with several others by their side. "If my analysis is correct, we just pull open this baby and…"

The cyclopes all pulled the manhole off, and a bright, sunlike light shone through! Everybody immediately popped their heads through, and found that they were no longer inside those strange stone tunnels!

Rather, they found themselves in what appeared to be a town square! Whimsically-colored stone houses with impressive wooden roofs and fantastic decorations were scattered about, stone walls were painted in all sorts of colors, and even the floor's stone was an inviting shade of peach. Yet, despite its lovely appearance, there was nobody there in that town square save for a couple of birds of squirrels. It was practically lifeless.

"It sure seems lonely here," Chihiro remarked as she looked over the scenery and frowned.

"You could say that again," Insider replied with a sigh. "Even since that puppet king took over, everybody's been too scared to leave their houses. You disobey even one of his laws, no matter how minor…"

Insider only drew a finger across their throat.

Chihiro winced as she looked back at Insider. "Yeah, I see your point,"

"Get down! The guards are coming!" shouted the cyclops woman from before—Eyeantha, they had since learned her name was—from the back of the ground.

Everybody gasped and ducked back down as tough footsteps sounded from afar, and drew the manhole back over its hole in one swift movement. From the few holes within the manhole itself, they spied the bodies of several armored guards as the guards stationed themselves, looked around, and passed the area by!

As the guards’ bodies drew out of sight, Insider carefully pushed away the manhole and peered back outside. "Coast is clear, everyone!" Insider proclaimed as they popped outside. "You can come out now!"

Everybody else popped back outside, and glazed the area over one last time as Insider and a few others closed the manhole back up.

"Now, if my calculations are correct, there should be a gate somewhere around here." Insider looked over to the lefthand side and beamed. "There it is!" Insider trotted off towards the far left with the others close behind, and presented them all with a large, stone gate covered in colorful, glowing rainbow markings. "This gate should put us on path to the first Seeing Eye Tower—" Insider frowned and rubbed their chin as they looked it over "—but how do we open it?"

"It doesn't look like there a lock," Spyro added as he flew forward and analyzed the gate, "Or a key!"

"And I don't see any switches anywhere!" Chihiro remarked as she spun around and whistled.

"Then I guess we'll just have to find another way out," Insider said as they turned back to address the group. "Split up and scour every corner of this place if you have to. There has to be some alternate means of escape around here!"

With affirmative nods, the groups soon dispersed and scavenged all around the town square, all with a hasty sense of urgency as they searched for warps, magical gates, key cards, anything that could have possibly opened a way.

"Nothing under here!" Spyro announced as he pulled up a swath of crates and barrels using magic and peered underneath their wooden selves.

"GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" cried an elderly-sounding voice as several of the cyclopes were kicked—literally—out of some rando's house.

The cyclopes groaned as they sat back up and rubbed their heads. "Nothing in there either…"

"Nothing in this garden!" cried someone else as they held up a flowerpot.

"Or these walls!"

"Or this!"

"Or that!"

"Or any of these!"

As Chihiro watched them fruitlessly search from the alleyway she scoured, she sat down and heaved a sigh. "Geez, how hard can it been to find a secret key or passageway or something?" Chihiro asked as she crossed her arms. Chihiro heaved another sigh as she brushed her feet against the cobblestone pathways, and…

"Someone, help!" cried someone in the distance.

Chihiro jumped to her feet as the screams echoed across the horizons, snapped her fingers and teleported onto a nearby house's roof. As she peered down from the rooftop with her balance kept with care, her eyes narrowed. There, an alleyway across, several guards dressed in tough-looking stone armor cornered an elderly cyclops man who shook so hard it might've caused an earthquake! The guards held gigantic stone cleavers in the air as if they were ready to kill!

"Hey, that's not fair!" Chihiro exclaimed as she clasped her hands against the rooftop's edge and scowled.

With another snap of her fingers, Chihiro teleported in front of the cyclops man and threw up a shield made of magic! She cast the guards a smirk as their cleavers harmlessly clunked onto her shield, and teleported right behind them as her hands glowed with cyan, magical light. As she shot out a barrage of rapid punches, magic spheres shot out like lightning from a thundercloud and slammed straight into the guards' armor! But, unfortunately they weren't strong enough to completely destroy the armor or cause any other kind of serious harm; the most they did was create a few cracks in the armor itself.

While the guards turned around and faced her, the cyclops man now completely forgotten in their minds, they lifted their cleavers—but they were too slow! Chihiro merely teleported away once more as a magical hammer manifested in her grasp, and with a strained cry, she slammed the hammer right onto their heads! The hammer's blow resonated through the guards' whole bodies while the cracks in their armor grew more and more pronounced, until the armor shattered completely into piles of tiny pebbles. All that was left was the white undershirts and striped boxers they wore! But, the guards were far too dizzy to notice—all they could do was stumble about in a concussed haze.

Chihiro ran over to the guards, slammed their heads together, and watched as they fell unconscious onto the pavement. Now that the battle was won, she looked up the cyclops man.

"You alright?" Chihiro asked as she hopped over the unconscious guards and came to the cyclops man's side.

"I am thanks to you!" the cyclops man proclaimed, his voice feeble and full of fear. "You saved my life, laddie!"

"It's no biggie!" Chihiro fanned a hand and cocked an eyebrow. "After all, the Skylander Code says… Er… Uh…" Chihiro shook her head and shrugged. "Oh, whatever. What were those guards bugging you about, anyways?"

The cyclops man trailed away from Chihiro's gaze and looked further down the alley. "I've been seeing these strange statues all over the place lately, so I went to investigate them further, but when I came up to this one, those guards just jumped out and started badgering me out of nowhere!"

"Strange statues?" Chihiro tilted her head and raised her eyebrows.

"Indeed! I'll show you!"

The cyclops man walked further into the alley and ushered Chihiro to follow him. Chihiro trailed behind the cyclops man for a few paces, and came to a stop the same time he did. As they both finished walking, he stepped aside and showed her a brown stone statue that housed a glowing eyeball on its top.

"I'm no detective, but I have a feeling these things are bad news!"

Chihiro hummed and rubbed her chin as she examined the statue, balled her hand into a fist, and punched the eye straight in its pupil! But, it was no use—her hand only phased through the eye and smacked straight into the stone exterior. As she yowled in pain and stepped back, Chihiro looked back at the statue and gritted her teeth.

"Doesn't look like these things respond to brute force," Chihiro remarked as her hands glowed a faint aqua, "so maybe magic's the answer!"

As she said that very sentence, a sphere of teal magic formed in her hand! Chihiro squeezed the sphere a few times, then tossed it at the eye like one would a baseball! The sphere slammed against the eye, and with a bright flash of magic, the eye vanished and left behind only a hollow, spherical stone!

The cyclops man walked up to Chihiro and shook her hand. "Thank goodness, laddie! You did it!" The man said as he dug into his pocket and yanked out a crumpled paper list. "Take this—" the cyclops man smoothed out the list and handed it over to Chihiro "—it's a list of all those stone statues I found! If anyone can bring them all down, it's you!"

"Can do, mister!"

Chihiro nodded as she snagged the list, and closed her eyes and teleported away. With a whoosh and a swirl of magic, Chihiro whisked back into the heart of the town square, where she was greeted by the sound of confused, yet optimistic chatter.

"The gate's down?" said a voice that was unmistakably Spyro's, "How'd that happen?"

"I happened!" Chihiro proclaimed as she opened her eyes and found everybody crowded at the gate.

As she waved to the others and watched them crowd around her, Chihiro smiled and handed them the list. "These gates are powered by these weird magic eyes—you gotta destroy them with magic to go on!" Chihiro handed over the list to Spyro. "Some old dude gave me a list of where they all are!"

"That's great, Chihiro!" Spyro said as he passed the list along to Insider.

Insider looked over the list, nodded firmly, and snagged it inside their pocket. "Well, what are we waiting for?" Insider asked as they glazed all over the crowd. "Let's destroy some statues!"

With cheers of agreement, the entire group poured through the gate and ran so far away that the town square was little more than an afterthought in their minds. Now, it was time to do some spelunking!