"Here we are!" Arbo proclaimed as the creaking of the vine came to a halt, "The Treetop Terraces in all their glory!

Camo and Stealth Elf hopped off the leaf and onto a sturdy wooden platform, and gasped in awe as they took in the sights.

All around them were sturdy, life-filled trees with richly-colored leaves, large trunks covered in thick, solid bark and home to all sorts of fauna. Bugs, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, forestal dragonbunnies, and a couple others they couldn't even name danced through the wild woods! Gigantic flowers bloomed from the sides of the various wooden platforms they stood on with their petals firm and colored in a rainbow menagerie of hues. Even the sounds of the forest were filled with life, from the chirping of birds to the singing of crickets to the soft rustle of the trees' leaves as they a passing breeze caressed them.

"It's so beautiful!" Stealth Elf whispered as she clasped her hands together, her voice laced with wonder.

Camo, however seemed almost discontent as he looked over the area, like it didn't quite live up to the expectations he had set, or maybe there was something else on his mind? He looked troubled as his eyes drank in the surroundings, his snout curled into a frown.

"What's bugging you, Camo?" Stealth Elf cast Camo an aside gaze. "You're acting strange."

Upon hearing Stealth Elf's words, Camo shook his head. "Oh, it's nothing," Camo said as he cast his eyes towards a gigantic hornet in some weird headdress that buzzed across the platform. "Hey!" Camo looked up towards the hornet and smiled. "You wouldn't happen to know where the Tree of Life is, would you?"

The hornet buzzed a bit more furiously as it watched Camo, and its buzzing turned full of rage as it shot a stinger towards him! Luckily, Camo dodged in the nick of time, but the surprised look on his face as he watched it vanish into the woods spoke all.

"Something tells me we need to do some pest control!" Stealth Elf proclaimed as she withdrew her daggers and somersaulted forwards, her blank white eyes fixed on the hornet!

The hornet buzzed loud as it readied its stinger to fire, but before it could, Camo leaped into the battle and tackled Stealth Elf out of the way! The two of them tumbled backwards, groaned and shook their heads.

"Camo, what was that for?" Stealth Elf exclaimed as she glared down Camo. "I just about had that thing!"

"We don't need to attack it!" Camo shouted back. "The bugs here aren't aggressive!"

"Docile, my foot! That thing looks like it's ready to kill!" Stealth Elf took one look at the hornet that just attacked them before she shot a glare back at Camo. "How do you know that, anyways?"

Camo only stepped back with a level of shock in his eyes. "I, I'm not sure."

Stealth Elf cocked an eyebrow out of sheer confusion. "You're not sure? Camo, that's—" Stealth Elf's ear twitched as she looked ahead and ducked "—bug!"

The hornet zoomed right over Stealth Elf’s back as she ducked, stopped in midair and turned around. Its furious buzzing like ringing in everyone's ears, it readied its stinger and shot off a barrage of sharp, poison-laden missiles down at Stealth Elf and Camo! The two of them cried out and jumped out of the way as these stingers tore through the area where they once sat and made a nice wall between the two. However, Stealth Elf wasn't one to be deterred! With a hup, she jumped onto the top of one stinger, and sprung forward with her eyes trained on the hornet!

"Don't blink!"

The hornet readied its stinger to fire, and blinked as it released; it was only able to watch in surprise as the stinger slammed right into a straw scarecrow that bore a striking resemblance to Stealth Elf! It watched dumbfounded as the dummy fell into the depths of the forest…

"Told you not to blink!"

Stealth Elf smirked as she reappeared behind the hornet and kicked it in the back! The hornet buzzed in pain as it shot forward and slid down onto the platform. It looked almost pitiful as it rested on its side, its wings crumpled slightly while its legs scrambled about in a hurry.

Camo frowned as he stepped towards the creature, and his leaves seemed to wilt just slightly from sorrow.

"Now that's how you take care of things," Stealth Elf remarked as she popped back onto the platform with a confident aura in her stance, but it soon turned to utter disbelief as she watched Camo stare down at the flailing hornet with sorrow. "Come on, Camo, it's just a bug!" Stealth Elf walked up to Camo and crossed her arms. "I care about the environment too, but that thing did try to kill you!" Stealth Elf shrugged as Camo shot her a glare. "Just saying!"

Camo shook his head, gently tapped the ground below with his paw and wrapped the hornet in a gentle blanket of vines. As its struggling came to a close and its buzzes turned to soft snores, Camo stroked its worn head with an almost familiar level of fondness, as if it was someone he knew for years.

"Come on, Stealth!" Camo exclaimed as he looked back at Stealth Elf with a new level of worry in his eyes. "We need to find out why all the wildlife here's gone, well, wild!"

Camo turned himself towards the northmost way of the platform, which held no traditional paths of gates. Rather, in its steed was a simple barrier made of tree bark with a crude wooden crank close by! With a simple few taps of his paws, vines manifested from the bark under him and slowly cranked the crank!

The barrier went down completely In the few seconds it took Stealth Elf to teleport over to Camo's side, and revealed a series of wooden pathways covered in round, spiky cacti. The two of them raced down the path as the cacti quickly receded, and stopped short as they found themselves before another bark barrier.

"The switch for this one should be—" Camo turned his gaze to the left "—there!"

His eyes trained on yet another branchlike crank stationed on a skinny, faraway tree stump, and Camo summoned a ripe watermelon that just burst with flavor. As its rind grew more inflated, Camo parried it at the crank with his tail! Before it could even reach the crank, however, the watermelon exploded into a barrage of meaty fruit chunks! Several of the fruit chunks slammed into the crank's handle and sent it spinning like a juiced-up soda bottle. The barrier shrank down in moments, and revealed a series of large toadstools attached to a gigantic tree stump positioned in a way that was almost akin to stairs!

Stealth Elf flipped herself onto the first, and the next, while Camo hastily jumped after her. He pulled himself onto the third mushroom and panted, but looked up to see that Stealth Elf already arrived at the top!

"Two can play at that game!" Camo proclaimed as he stomped his back paws.

A gigantic watermelon grew from where his back paws laid, exploded and sent him flying over to the next mushroom! With another stomp he repeated the process again, and again, and once more until he finally vaulted over to where Stealth Elf stood!

"Took you long enough," Stealth Elf sneered, a hint of playfulness in her normally-serious voice. "You know, Camo—" Stealth Elf stepped towards a wooden crank and took a grip on its handle "—with the way you ran through this place, it's like you knew it by heart!"

"Oh, this is nothing!" Camo strutted over towards Stealth Elf as she lowered the barrier. "Just wait till you see what's behind this one!"

The suspension hung tight as the barrier lowered and revealed that behind its wooden exterior was a series of gigantic, rubbery flowers!

"Time to have some real fun!" Camo exclaimed as he jumped up, spun in mid-air then slammed down onto one of the flowers, "WOO-HOO!"

Camo's cheers echoed throughout the forest as he bounced away from view while Stealth Elf quickly followed. But as the two of them bounced further along the lengthy flight of bouncy flowers, Camo's lighthearted cheers faded into a quiet confusion.

"This is fun and all," Camo whispered as he flung himself towards the next flower, "but why do I know this place so well?"

§

"BANBAN!" Chihiro exclaimed as she slammed the door to her makeshift laboratory wide open. "Welcome to where the magic happens!"

As Chihiro hopped away towards the machine, Master Eon and Hugo's eyes (well, metaphorical eyes in Master Eon's case) glazed over the lab room with confusion and maybe a teensy ounce of concern.

"So, Chihiro," Hugo asked as he shook a stray torn page off of his foot. "Where is this machine, exactly?"

"You mean my pride and joy? The greatest accomplishment I've ever made in all eleven years of my life? The machine that'll surely let me pass my fifth portal master exam?" Chihiro let out a slightly concerning giggle, and stretched her arms towards a bulky machine to her left. "BANBAN! AGAIN!"

Chihiro pushed her arms a little further for emphasis. "Introducing the Missionator!"

"Missionator?"

Hugo frowned as he and Master Eon joined Chihiro in observing the machine. It was certainly something, alright. The base consisted of three metal squares of varying length and attachments. The leftmost one was the smallest by far and had a metal slot akin to one that would belong on a printer smack-dab in the center. The rightmost one was a bit larger in comparison and had an open panel on its center, a crooked satellite on the top and a giant lever to the side.

The largest section by far, however, was the middle one! It was about the size of the prior two sections stacked together with a wide screen and matching keyboard on its front, which was paired with some kind of beacon on its top. The whole machine looked fairly worn with its old materials, various bandaging and hastily-covered flaws, and the rainbow hodgepodge of colors its metal came in, but it could probably work, right?

"Alright," Chihiro said as she placed her hands on her hips, "so, for my fifth exam, you guys said I needed to make something that can help people using some kind of magic, right?"

"That is correct," Master Eon affirmed with a soft bob of his ghostly body.

"Well, using some animation magic, some tools and books I snagged off of Drobot, and a little bit of elbow grease, I made this baby!" Chihiro bounced up and down just slightly as she spoke, her fingers pointed towards all the various parts of the Missionator. "You see, this satellite here gathers distress calls from all across Skylands, and then the hub of the machine—that's this big part here—processes it all…"

Master Eon and Hugo gave amused glances and chuckles as Chihiro rambled on and on with bubbling enthusiasm. Even though they laughed at her childlike joy, a ring of amazement flashed in their eyes as Chihiro described the machine's functions further.

"With all these different functions, organizing patrols'll be a snap!" Chihiro snapped her fingers and giggled. "Heh, just like that!"

"It's quite impressive, Chihiro," Hugo replied as he adjusted his jacket, "but, that leads into our next question."

"Does it actually work?" Master Eon continued as he flew above the Missionator and examined its exterior.

"See for yourself~"

Chihiro walked over to the machine's lever, rubbed her hands, jumped up and grabbed the lever tight! It slowly fell down from the sheer weight of Chihiro's entire body with a worn creak, while Chihiro herself stepped away and examined the machine. A number of beeps and whirrs emitted from the machine itself as it rattled with energy, and a bright flash of light enveloped the entire lab!

Chihiro screamed and flung her arms in front of her eyes, but let them fall back to her side as the light faded. "Geez, that's definitely not supposed to happen," Chihiro groaned as she rubbed her eyes. "Did I leave a screw loose or something?" Chihiro tilted her head and frowned. "Why the heck is everything gray?"

True to Chihiro's word, the entire room was now completely grayscale, from the once-colorful books and graphs. to the stone on the walls. right down to Master Eon and Hugo as they freaked out!

"Guys, calm down!" Chihiro exclaimed as she walked in front of Master Eon and Hugo.

However, they didn't even acknowledge her! Hugo just frantically paced back and forth as he ruffled his already quite frazzled fur while Master Eon flitted to and fro in a panic. Not that anybody knew what they were panicking about, since despite their mouths moving, Chihiro could barely make out what they were saying!

Chihiro barely gathered a few syllables from Hugo's distorted, warped speech. "Ch… Go… Wha…"

"HELLLOOOOOOOO? Hugo!" Chihiro waved a hand in front of Hugo. "I'm right here, you know!"

No use, Hugo just kept running around like a headless chicken!

"EARTH TO HUGO!" Chihiro bounced up and down, but when she saw that Hugo still didn't acknowledge her, she only groaned and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Fine, be that way!" Chihiro huffed and turned back to the Missionator, "I'll figure this out myself!"

Surprisingly, the Missionator itself was still full-color, despite the fact that everything aside from Chihiro herself was muted gray! How could that happen?

"Eh, no use worrying about it right now," Chihiro said as she walked over to the Missionator and pressed a few buttons on its massive keyboard. "I should see if it actually worked first."

Chihiro turned a few knobs and looked up at the screen with a hopeful grin, but that hope faded as the screen emitted nothing but static.

"DANGIT!" Chihiro kicked the side of the Missionator, "Work, you stupid thing!"

A twitchy frown found its way on her face as Chihiro furrowed her eyebrows and twisted around a few more knobs on the keyboard panel. She made a quick gaze up at the screen, but sighed and went back to pressing buttons and twisting knobs as it displayed only static yet again.

"Wait a second!" Chihiro let go of the knobs she held and stepped away from the keyboard. "Maybe I should check the inside!"

Chihiro walked back over to the rightmost side of the machine and frowned. "Strange, when did I leave that panel open?…" Chihiro stepped forwards and ducked her head under the panel itself, her eyes trained on the inner machinery, "I guess I must've forgotten to close it before I left for my—" Chihiro jumped back a bit "—FLY!"

Chihiro shook her head and peered back inside the cogs. Sure enough, a fly was stuck in the inner workings and tried desperately to fly off!

"Don't worry, lil' guy!" Chihiro leaned against the Missionator with one arm rested on the panel and the other flailed about. "I'll get'cha out of there!"

As Chihiro pushed herself forward and leaned further over the panel, her free arm gripped onto something above her and unseen in an attempt to stabilize herself. But, she lost her balance and fell down as the thing she held lurched down! Chihiro groaned and shook her head, while her eyes gazed on the Missionator to find that its lever was pulled down!

"Wait, crap, what did I—"

Before Chihiro could say another word more, the Missionator made a sickly whir and vanished in a bright, all-engulfing flash of white, sparkly light!

"Do?"