With another flash of light, Boomer and Trigger Happy stepped off the warp panel and found themselves back at the open mouth of the minefield. There, Boomington and Snuckles stood square in front of the gate's open mouth. For a rare moment in their entire lives, Trigger Happy and Boomer couldn't find it in them to smile or a crack a joke; all they could do was stare down Boomington as he kept Snuckles held tight.

"So, Boomy," Trigger Happy asked as he scratched his head and looked up at Boomer, "what exactly is BOOM!, anyways?"

"Well, Trigger Happy," Boomer replied as he stretched his arms to the murky skies. "There's a lot of troll games called BOOM!" Boomer stretched out his fingers one by one. "There's the one where you make a chompy fetch lit dynamite, the one where you see how long you can juggle lit bombs, the one where you stack up dynamite sticks and see how many you can take out before they all fall and explode—"

"BUT NONE OF THOSE ARE WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE!" Boomington exclaimed as he stomped his foot, "If you wanna free your little buddy here—" Boomington shook Snuckles for emphasis and gestured out to the open minefield before them "—you have to navigate through this minefield and not activate a single mine!"

Boomer and Trigger Happy both gasped, but Boomington wasn't nearly as concerned. He only cackled and toyed a bit with a badge on his chest.

"Good luck!" Boomington sneered as the light engulfed him. "Not!"

Boomer only scoffed and crossed his arms as Boomington and Snuckles reappeared on the other end of the minefield.

"Oh, forget that! If I beat you once, I'll beat you again!" Boomer looked towards Trigger Happy and winked. "Come on, Trigger Happy!"

Trigger Happy frowned a bit at first, but as he saw the wink Boomer gave him he burst into one of his trademark wide smile. So, the two of them laughed and dove headfirst into the minefield! They giggled as they marched through the fields, joked around and sang jaunty songs to each other, and yet, despite their seeming carelessness, they didn't activate a single mine! It was like they knew every inch of it by heart!

"FOR HE'S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW, FOR HE'S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW~" Trigger Happy sang as he bounced back and forth in front of Boomer. As he finished singing, he whipped around in a way that completely covered Boomer's front. "Okay, what direction do we go in now?"

Boomer's eyes glazed over the minefield map for a few seconds, and he quickly shoved it back into his beard. "We go west!" Boomer whispered, his mouth masked by his gigantic mechanical hands.

The two of them nodded, carefully trailed down the westmost path, but turned around and giggled as they caught sight of Boomington giving them the stink eye.

"ANYWAYS," Trigger Happy chuckled. "Did you see that new comedian's act last night?"

"Comedian? More like Come-dull-ian!" Boomer scoffed. "All his jokes made me wanna fall asleep!"

"I know, right?" Trigger Happy whipped out a pistol and rolled it around like a toy. "The one with the sheep and the bed was so…"

"BAA-ring?" Boomer grinned from ear to ear.

"Yeah!" Trigger Happy made another awful grin. "It made me wanna fall a-sheep!"

Boomington made the loudest groan known to trollkind, looked away and buried his face in his hands from sheer embarrassment.

"Phew, got him off our tail—old Boomington never did like bad puns," Boomer whispered. He made a soft chuckle as he retrieved the map once more. "Anyways, now we go north until we reach here, then we take a right…"

Boomington sighed and turned around, but raised an eyebrow as he caught sight of Boomer and Trigger Happy deep in conversation.

"What are you two discussing?" Boomington demanded from afar.

Boomer and Trigger Happy both froze in place. Crap! Had he caught on at last?

"OH, NOTHING!" Boomer shouted back as he made a sickeningly wide smile. "Just talking about the superior methods of cooking sheepstew pie, that's all!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Trigger Happy insisted as he bounced up and down. "If you ask me, I think broiling it in a hot pot of soup is the way to go!"

Boomer shook his head as sweat dripped from his brow. "No, no, you've got it all wrong! You have to bake in an oven at four hundred degrees…"

Boomer and Trigger Happy looked back at Boomington withthose wide grins still plastered on their faces, but he seemed less amused. He only raised an eyebrow and toyed with his flare gun!

"Say, Boomer," Boomington asked as he cocked his gun yet again, "what's that thing in your beard?"

Boomer completely froze and chuckled as he toyed with his beard. "Oh, whoops, seems like I got some crumbs from lunch in my beard!" Boomer chuckled some more as he stroked his beard. "Oh well, it can't be helped, I—" Boomer's eyes shrank as the map fell out of his beard "—guess?"

"Knew it."

Boomington scoffed, and shot the gun straight at the map! Boomer jumped back and shouted on instinct as its flare headed straight towards him, but in his haste to get away. he didn't even think to grab the map! By then, it was too late; all he could do was watch as his map went up in flames.

"Hah, knew you had some kind of trick to it!" Boomington shouted with a firm scowl. "Is this what you did at the New Year's party, too?"

"You're still not over that?" Boomer rolled his eyes, and looked back to the path with a bit more concern.

"What're we gonna do now, Boomy?" Trigger Happy asked as his wide eyes peered towards Boomer with a slight light of fear.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that, Trigger Happy!" Boomer grinned and leaned towards Trigger Happy's ear. "See, there's a secret to these things!"

Trigger Happy and Boomer whispered carefully-kept secrets to each other, nodded and walked ahead. Even though the map was lost, they still did perfectly!

"You see, they always make a simple, linear path out of these minefield mazes!" Boomer whispered back to Trigger Happy as they took a right turn. "You just gotta figure out what it is!"

"Really?" Trigger Happy asked with sparkling eyes.

"You bet your boots!"

The two of them smiled and carefully walked along the path, absolutely no tension between them. But, their happiness didn't reach Boomington, who scowled and tossed Snuckles against the wall of the storage shed behind him.

"They're doing better than I thought! Maybe I was wrong to underestimate my old coworker," Boomington muttered as he dug into his pockets. "Guess I should crank things up a notch!"

Snuckles winced as he shook his head and looked up. With a groan, he inched himself back up to full height, leaned over and looked past Boomington's shoulder.

"With one press of this button," Boomington whispered as he waved a remote with a big red button around, "all these mines'll blow at once! There's no way they'll survive that!"

Snuckles let out a slow, shocked gasp as his eyes shone with fear.

"No, he can't!" Snuckles whimpered as he turned around and lowered his voice. "I've gotta stop him, but, but how? What do I do? What do I do?"

Snuckles shook his head, waddled back around to where Boomington was just inches away from pressing that button, and yelled out as he swung forward and headbutted Boomington in the back! Boomington screamed out as he fell on his face, while the remote flew through the skies and landed just inches away from where Snuckles was!

"My remote!" Boomington cried as he pulled his head from the floor with a POP!

"I'll get it, I'll get it!" Snuckles cried as he stampeded over Boomington and charged towards the remote.

However, he just tripped over his own shoelaces and fall flat on his face! In the process, the shock from his fall tossed the remote right into the minefield! Snuckles winced as he looked up, but breathed a sigh of relief as everything stayed stagnant.

"Skylanders!" Snuckles called while Boomer and Trigger Happy looked towards him. "That remote sets off the mines! Quick, stop it!" Snuckles looked aside and winced as he tugged against his bindings. "I'd do it myself, but I'm a little tied up right now."

Boomer and Trigger Happy winced, looked towards each other and nodded. The two of them gingerly tiptoed through the path and loomed over the part where the remote was. Unfortunately, none of them had any way of knowing whether it was underneath a mine or not, so, Boomer lifted a stick of dynamite, tied its fuse into a loop, and nudged it towards the remote's antenna.

"Steady, steady," Boomer whispered as he nudged his dynamite stick inches closer to the remote. "Keep her steady…"

But as they carefully tried to grab the antenna, they didn't see Boomington grab a bomb from his pockets and snarl!

"Oh enough of this!" Boomington shouted as he tossed the bomb onto the minefield. "If they won't light up those mines, I'll do it myself!"

The bomb soared through the skies and landed on the remote's button with surprising precision! All around, a symphony of beeps chimed in tune while everybody around gasped as the button's click echoed through the areas—save for Boomington, who only smirked.

"This is the end, Skylanders! What're you gonna do now, huh?" Boomingtom shouted with utter smugness.

But soon enough, his smug smirk turned to confusion as Snuckles emerged from out the corner of his eyes. Snuckles didn't seem scared at all! Rather, he leaned forwards, almost as if he was about ready to run right into the field and jump into the fray himself!

"What are you doing?" Boomington exclaimed as Snuckles stormed forwards before Boomington himself leaped in front of Snuckles. "Only a fool would run out into a minefield like that!"

"Yeah?" Snuckles asked as he sprinted forward and headbutted Boomington. "Well, I guess I'm the biggest fool there is! And you know what? I DON'T CARE!"

Boomington clenched his teeth as he recovered from the headbutt, and slung a punch at Snuckles, but Snuckles just jumped out of the way! Instead, Boomington slid forwards, got kicked in the gut by Snuckles, and fell onto the minefield! Snuckles jumped off of Boomington's chest and looked towards Boomer and Trigger Happy as the last few beeps sounded off.

"I joined the Mabu Defense Force because I wanted to be a hero and help everyone, just like the Skylanders do! No matter how scary or how dangerous it might be, I won't give up! Just like they didn't give up on me!"

With a grunt, Snuckles leaped forward and shot himself right between the mine and Boomer and Trigger Happy!

"DON'T WORRY, SKYLANDERS, I'LL PROTECT YOU!"

In that last moment of silence, the final beep sounded off, and explosions blew everywhere! The entire minefield disappeared in a fit of fire and thick, churning black smoke, while the scent of shrapnel and death stank throughout the entire outpost!

"I'LL GET YOU NEXT TIME, BOOMERRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" Boomington vowed as he blasted off into the distance.

Trigger Happy and Boomer both ducked for cover, and blinked as a green light fell over them. They both poked their heads up, and sure enough, a shield of light guarded them from the explosions that had now ceased.

"Phew, that was close!" Boomer remarked as the smoke and shield cleared to reveal a warm field full of craters. "Talk about quick thinking, Snucks!" But as the shield faded, so did Boomer's smile. "Snucks? Snucky boy?"

No matter which direction Boomer looked, Snuckles was nowhere to be seen. He wasn't in the craters, not around the little remains of the field. All that could be found was a scrap of his uniform that was torn off by a rock. It couldn't be… Boomer sniffled as he grabbed the scrap of fabric and bit his lip, but finally, a few sniffles turned to choked sobs as he buried his face in his metallic hands.

"I said I'd protect him, but," Boomer sobbed as Trigger Happy patted him on the shoulder, though it did little to console Boomer, "that kid was the one who protected us…"

Boomer choked out more sobs, fell to his knees and screamed to the murky, solemn skies.

"SNUCKLES, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

As tears streamed down Boomer's face and ugly wails escaped his mouth, Trigger Happy just went back to quietly consoling Boomer. Even Trigger Happy, normally an unending source of joy and smiles, could only bring himself to quietly rub Boomer's back. Snuckles, so wide-eyed and excited to save the world, to work alongside people that were surely his heroes, ended up giving his life for the cause! He was so young, too! He had his whole life ahead of him, and it got cut short in one flash. He definitely had family and friends back home too, and his teammates who awaited his return with bated breath...

What would Boomer and Trigger Happy tell them? Neither of them know, so they just consoled each other in silence, until Trigger Happy caught sight of something that made him shake Boomer's shoulder!

"Boomer, Boomer!" Trigger Happy shouted as he shook Boomer out of mourning, and pointed to a nearby crater. "Look, over there!"

Boomer wiped his runny nose, and followed Trigger Happy's pointing hand. There, across from them both, what seemed like a small, furry hand gripped onto the side of the crater.

"Snuckles?" Boomer whispered.

One furry hand became two, and an entire head, and sure enough, Snuckles groaned and coughed as he struggled to pull himself out of the crater! The ropes that once bound him tight were singed, frayed, and rested around his shoulders like a cape, and his uniform was charred and torn in some places, but still intact. It was like seeing a miracle in person!

So Boomer smiled as he knelt down and lifted Snuckles out of the crater.

"Snuckles, my boy, you're alive!" Boomer wailed as he hugged Snuckles tight, and immediately let go as Snuckles broke into a coughing fit.

"Of, of course!" Snuckles panted between coughs, a weak smile on his face. "Underneath this uniform is special, explosion-immune, super agent armor!"

To exemplify his point, Snuckles rapped a hand against his chest and beamed as a metallic sound resounded out, but he coughed again and sighed.

"It doesn't protect from landings though, unfortunately."

"Aw, thank goodness!" Boomer sniffled and wiped tears of relief from his face. "After all, we can't lose a super-special hero like you! You're a diamond in the rough!"

However, Boomer's praise didn't seem to make Snuckles feel any better. Instead of smiling and basking in the praise, Snuckles just frowned and looked aside while he tugged on his collar.

"Thanks I guess, but, I don't think I'm cut out for this hero business after all." Snuckles bit his lip and sniffled. "After all, I messed everything up and got kidnapped and caused you all so much trouble! You guys are the real heroes, I'm just some mabu from the middle of nowhereland…"

"NONSENSE!" Boomer beamed as he slapped a hand on Snuckles' shoulder. "Heroes aren't born, kiddo, they're made!" Boomer's wide, energetic smile became gentle and a little more wiser as he let go of Snuckles, "With all the courage you showed off today, I'd say you're shaping up to be a great one!"

Though he was still quite weak, Snuckles beamed and wiped a few tears from his face. "Thank you, Skylanders." Snuckles hobbled away towards the warehouse. "Anyways, the mission's not over yet! We still need to get that—"

Snuckles winced and fell to his knees, and as he groaned, Boomer prodded forwards and wrapped Snuckles' arm around his shoulders. Snuckles looked towards Boomer, and once again, tears of joy streamed down his ashy, frazzled face.

Trigger Happy beamed, hopped up to Snuckles and lifted Snuckles’ arm onto his head.

"Three cheers for Snuckles, the greatest hero in all Skylands!" Trigger Happy proclaimed, and lowered his voice as he imitated the sounds of a cheering crowd. "Snuckles! Snuckles! Snuckles!"

"Snuckles! Snuckles! Snuckles!" Boomer joined in as he and Trigger Happy carried Snuckles back to the warehouse display.

As soon as their feet hit the warm, slightly singed metal of the warehouse, Boomer and Trigger Happy released Snuckles and urged him towards the Golden Gear.

"Here's the gear, Snuckles!" Trigger Happy giggled as he twitched his ears. "Hey, that rhymed!"

"You know what to do, Snucky boy!" Boomer urged as he nudged Snuckles' shoulder.

Snuckles weakly smiled and nodded before he hobbled over to the Golden Gear's control panel and inputted something into its keyboard. With a friendly chirp, the control panel glowed green as a panel opened up below the gear and shot a rocket right through the gear's open hole! That same rocket's door slid open, and a flight of stairs emerged from its surface.

"Come on everyone!" Snuckles urged as he hopped up the stairs. "It's time for us to finish this mission!"

Boomer and Trigger Happy smiled and nodded towards each other as they raced up the stairs, and watched as the rocket closed up behind them. With a lurch and a rumble to tell them that the rocket blasted off, the three of them laid back in their seats while the troll outpost grew smaller and smaller from their window view…

§

Chihiro winced as she looked up at the monsters, and looked back down at herself. How did she get herself into this mess? These monsters were way too powerful for her to tackle alone, were practically immune to her magic, and worse yet, they had her completely cornered!

Was this the end?

Chihiro winced again as she caught sight of her trembling hands, and the sound of growling alerted her to the fact that the monsters were ready to strike! Chihiro yelped and ducked as they lunged towards the bushes she rested on! Thankfully, she moved quick enough that the monsters only slammed into each other rather than her.

Once they whined and reeled back, the monsters glared at each other, and started squawking gibberish! The look on their faces showed they were pretty darn mad. Though Chihiro couldn't understand a word they said, it was pretty clear to her nonetheless that they were too busy arguing!

Now's my chance! Chihiro thought as she watched them argue. I have to get out of here!

Chihiro grimaced as she crawled out of view, dove into the bushes, and peered back out at the battlefield where the other two monsters continued to squabble. She was perfectly safe now, and better yet, she had the perfect opportunity to attack! But, what could she do? She didn't have a single spell that could effectively knock them out! They just no-sold every single thing she threw!

Wait a second! That's it! Chihiro snapped her fingers as her eyes glimmered. A no-sell spell! I could try one of those! If it works, then maybe it could knock the magic right out of those guys!

Though it sounded like a good idea, Chihiro didn't exactly feel easy about it. No-sell spells were pretty advanced magic according to the books she had read, and she never really tried one before. Could she really pull it off?

As the monsters bickered, the Guardifound walked up to them and slapped them both! While they reeled back and rubbed their aching faces, the Guardifound yelled out some gibberish and gestured towards the empty space where Chihiro once rested!

Chihiro squeaked and ducked down. Guess she didn't have a choice now—she had to do something before they found her!

Now, how do I perform a no-sell spell? Chihiro pondered as she rolled her hands around, Maybe— Chihiro pushed through the leaves and focused her attention on the monsters —something like this?

Chihiro’s hands flare with cyan light, and she held them towards the hole.

Monsters, lose your magic!

A bolt of cyan lightning shot from Chihiro's hands, slammed against the monsters, and exploded with a bright flash! For a moment, it seemed like it worked, but when the light faded, the monsters still stood tall! The only differences were that they now had cyan sparks crackling off of their bodies and they looked kinda dizzy, too.

Chihiro inhaled sharply and gritted her teeth as the monsters regain their balance and yelled. Crap! I should've known that wouldn't work!

With no other options, Chihiro closed her eyes and teleported further in the forest—and hopefully far away from those strange monsters. She planted a hand on a tree's sturdy trunk, then slouched down as she caught her breath. This whole day felt like an awful, awful nightmare. Hopefully, maybe it was just a nightmare. Chihiro pinched herself to be sure, but all she felt was a quick surge of pain. Nope, definitely real unfortunately for her.

"Wait a second," Chihiro realized as she stood up and watched the skies, which started to gray with worrisome clouds. "Didn't that thing send out other lightning bolts? And didn't Master Eon have artifacts scattered all across the island?"

Chihiro paused to pull out her map, dropped the map to the ground and bolted off without any kind of hesitation! Unfortunately, she was right; the map had dots practically all over the island!

Everyone could be in big trouble! Chihiro panicked as she raced through the forest as fast as her legs could carry her, her exhaustion from earlier replaced with a dizzying fear. I gotta find them before—

The trees parted, and Chihiro found herself in the more civilized parts of the island as a bolt of magic hurled straight towards her! Chihiro squeaked and ducked down, and as the bolt passed her by she heard, screaming? Yes, screaming, not that far from where she stood now!

Chihiro poked her head back up and gasped at what she saw. It was exactly as she feared! Those monsters ran rampant all over the island's heart, and they terrorized everyone and everything they saw! They started fights, overturned the local flora, and caused chaos to their hearts' content! The Skylanders and other residents of the island tried their best to fight the monsters off, but they were outnumbered and outpowered—a more than deadly combination!

"Hugo, Cali!" Chihiro exclaimed as the two of them tried to fight off a bright red monster with stones for teeth!

While the monster loomed over Hugo and Cali as it got ready to strike, Chihiro wasted no time either! Her eyes trailed over to a particularly large tree branch, and with a touch of her hand, she sent it slamming straight into the monster! Chihiro raced out of the forest with heavy breaths as the monster flew into the distance. That was a close one! For a minute, she wasn't even entirely sure it would work!

"You guys alright?" Chihiro asked as she ran up to Hugo and Cali and caught her breath.

"Thankfully, yes," Hugo panted as he held a furry hand over his heart. "Just what were these things? They just showed up out of nowhere and—"

Chihiro pulled herself back to her full height and whipped her head around. "It's a long story!"

"You know?" Hugo turned to Chihiro with eyes wide and full of realization paired with scorn. "Wait, Chihiro, don't tell me—"

"We can worry about that later!" Cali exclaimed as she pulled back Hugo. "But for now, we've gotta stop them!"

"And how are we supposed to do that?" Hugo shouted as he bit his nails as he looked over the island. "There has to be at least seventy of them!"

Chihiro winced, but not from Hugo's estimation. Rather, she heard stomping and heavy growling right behind her, so close that her hair stood on end! That couldn't be… She almost didn't want to turn around, but nevertheless she did. When she did, she found that the monster she knocked away earlier was back and bigger than ever!

Chihiro screamed as the monster slammed a fist into the ground, and grabbed Hugo and Cali's hands! There was no way she'd be able to fight it in its current state, so she had to take the next best option—run!

"Hugo!" Chihiro called as she turned her gaze towards a very panicked Hugo. "What's the strongest building on this island?"

"Why are you asking me that now?" Hugo's teeth chattered with fear, and he screamed as they ducked underneath a flaming rock!

Chihiro pointed towards the havoc-wreaking monsters. "Because! That's why!"

"THE MESS HALL!" Hugo blurted out at last as he clung tighter to Chihiro's arm. "It has the strongest reinforcement of all the buildings in this area!" Hugo made an uneasy chuckle. "Mealtimes get very hectic, you see…"

Chihiro nodded, channeled all the magic in her body and teleported away! When she opened her eyes, she found herself in front of the mess hall's ever-welcoming doors, but she didn't feel any kind of ease as she flung the doors open!

"Hugo, Cali, get in there now!" Chihiro exclaimed as she pushed Hugo and Cali in the mess hall.

"But what about you?" Cali exclaimed as Chihiro went to push the doors. "What're you doing? And how're we gonna stop all these monsters?"

"I'm going to find everyone and bring them to safety!"

Chihiro pushed the doors further down, bit her lip and winced as she lowered her voice.

"And, I don't know just yet."

As the doors slammed shut, Chihiro turned back to the mess she made and clenched her hands into trembling fists. The whole place looked like something out of a nightmare, or some supervillain's dream, with all these monsters running around, terrorizing people and tearing things down! It was so awful she couldn't bear to watch, yet she couldn't turn away either.

"What have I done?"