It had been an ordinary enough day for Spyro. There were no major missions, no supervillains with apocalyptic plans of destruction, not even the usual obnoxious Chompy calls the Skylanders got seemingly every single day. He and his friend Gill Grunt had been discussing what to do with their surprisingly free day just that afternoon, even. The two of them sat on a grassy ledge on the island's outskirts, time taken to absorb the rare peace they had for that moment. There, where the birds flew in the infinite skies and waves crashed on the beach in perfect, peaceful harmony... They laid bored out of their minds.

"We could go swimming," Spyro offered while he looked at Gill Grunt with a smile.

"We went swimming yesterday, Spyro," Gill Grunt said as he gave Spyro a quizzical look back.

"I don't remember doing that." Spyro's eyes lit up. "Oh wait, we did do that. How about going to the lava pits?"

"My scales always dry out when we go there."

"What about fishing?" Spyro's face heated up as he hung his head, and shame rang in his golden eyes. "Oh, right, you're a fish, not the best idea. Sorry."

"It's okay, Spy." Gill Grunt just made a gentle smile and patted Spyro's back.

Hearing that, Spyro beamed and looked back up at Gill. "Do you have any ideas?"

Gill Grunt didn't get to answer. Right as Spyro said this, sirens blared all around like the end of the world was upon them and almost made all the color drain from their faces. It couldn't be…

"We've gotta go, now!" Spyro exclaimed as he leaped into the skies and soared off as fast as he could.

§

It took them a few minutes, but Spyro and Gill Grunt arrived at the heart of the island, and the scenario had changed greatly. All around them, the light faded and the sky churned with thick dark gray clouds. Monsters of all kinds sprouted out of nowhere and ravaged whatever they could, from pots and flowers to the many buildings that were stationed around the way. The whole island had been turned to a war zone!

"What happened here?!" Spyro exclaimed while his head swerved back and forth. "Those look like…"—Spyro breathed in, heaved a loud groan and moaned—"Don't tell me it's HIM again."

"Looks like it, Spyro!" Gill Grunt shouted before he looked to his side, "WATCH OUT!"

Gill Grunt whipped out a water cannon filled with scalding water and blasted a large, muscular drow soldier that barreled their way with it. With a wipe of his brow and a sigh of relief, Gill Grunt turned around as all around them, the monsters fixed their eyes on him and Spyro.

"They're practically everywhere!"

Spyro furrowed his brow and bared his teeth. In moments, his eyes flashed from gold to a pure, resonant yellow while he bounded into the sky and stared down his foes. Once he was safely airborne, his body glowed with a powerful light that turned into a flashbang which enveloped the entire fifty-foot radius!

In that momentary confusion, Spyro grabbed Gill Grunt by his backpack and flew off as fast as one could. Spyro’s whole heart pounded with some mixture of adrenaline and uncertainty, but that was not to be acknowledged. He had to get to safety first! As the light he crafted faded away, Spyro caught sight a large, magical shield that covered the island's heart and beamed a fang-filled beam. With not a moment wasted, he raced inside and let go of Gill Grunt before he himself sat down and breathed a sigh of relief.

Thankfully, none of their enemies got inside! It was just him, Gill Grunt and all the other Skylanders gathered with breath bated. A large machine with a green domelike covering that blasted a bright stream of light from its top towered over them, and just the sight of it lifted Spyro’s hearted.

Good, the Core's safe too, Spyro thought as he looked at the Core with a smile of relief. If Kaos destroyed it, we'd be done for.

While Gill Grunt came to his senses, Spyro flew across the crowd and seated himself in front of Core and spread his wings.

"Skylanders!" Spyro addressed as he stood tall and firm. "We've got a code red on our hands, meaning our worst fear has come true—Kaos has come to destroy the Core, and he's brought an army."

Gasps and whispers rang all around as Spyro twitched in place before he spoke once more.

"However, we're not just gonna sit around and let him get away with it, are we?" A smile crawled across Spyro's lips as he watched everybody raise their arms.

"NO WAY!" shouted the crowd of Skylanders.

"That's what I like to hear!" Spyro's small smile grew wider by the second. "We're not going to go down without a fight, and if Kaos thinks that this'll be a piece of cake, well…"—Spyro flared out his wings and took to the skies as his eyes glinted red—"Then he's got another thing coming!"

And with cheers and battle cries all around, the barrier went down and the Skylanders all went to battle! Spyro took to the skies and dove among the crowds. As he swept down, he charged a bright flame within his mouth before he blasted down the villains with scorching hot bursts of fire.

"FOR SKYLANDS!" He cried, as did the Skylanders around him.

Meanwhile on the ground, the Skylanders all led the charge! Fire shot up from the ground while volts of lightning fell from the sky, battles cries shouted out all around, and each one resounded with the sounds of clanging metal and weapons shattering.

This meant war.

Spyro looked down as the Skylanders swatted down their enemies like flies. A smirk stretched across his face as confidence swelled in his heart while he watched them fight their enemies off with ease.

"SPYRO, LOOK OUT!" shouted a raspy voice from behind him.

Spyro whipped around right as pitch-black lightning bolts shot a large winged beast out of the skies. Not moments later, a thin, violet and red dragoness with silver horns flew to his side with eyes trained on the cloudy skies.

"Thanks Cynder!" Spyro shouted over the chaos of battle. "That was a close one!"

"You can thank me later," Cynder spat out as she flew off, "Kaos's sending in reinforcements, and they're coming in fast! We're gonna need backup!"

"Got it!" Spyro shouted as he flew behind Cynder.

As he followed her, Spyro looked down at the other Skylanders once more while they battered away at Kaos's minions.

"Fear the fish!" Gill Grunt proclaimed as he shot out giant, anchor-sized harpoons from his gun and grazed down an entire platoon of trolls.

A large shadow imposed over him as he admired his handiwork. Gill Grunt whipped around, and found a brawny drow soldier towered over him! Before Gill Grunt could ready his cannon and fire, however, a giant pot of golden coins bonked the drow on the head and sent it toppling down.

"Got'cha covered, Gill!" Shouted an auburn and cream colored gremlin that wielded twin golden pistols in their hands as they leaped onto the fallen soldier's back.

"Good timing, Trigger Happy!" Gill gave Trigger Happy a thumbs up/ "You really saved my scales!"

Trigger Happy didn't reply. He instead turned around and shot off a round of shiny golden coins at an oncoming flock of goblins, all while he giggled with unadulterated glee.

Gill Grunt only shrugged with a smile, then jiggled his backpack and shot into the air, propelled by a hard-pouring cascade of steaming hot water. As he clutched his harpoon gun tight, he flew off and joined a dark gray and cream colored anthropomorphic shark and a bright red monster made entirely of bubbling, red-hot magma and volcanic stone.

"Terrafin, Eruptor! How's the situation over here?"

"Not good, Gill," shouted back the monster as they flung a gigantic blog of magma at an oncoming wave of spell punks. "There's too many of these guys! The more we beat, the more show up!"

"I don't know what you're talkin' about, 'Ruptor!" Exclaimed the shark with a resounding crack from their brass knuckle-covered fists, "I'm having the time of my life!"

"Easy for you to say, Terrafin!"

Eruptor screamed as something latch onto his head and hacked up a stream of bubbling magma! Before anyone else could react, something completely invisible to the naked eye flew through the skies and snatched the guilty culprit—a tiny, rabid gremlin—off of Eruptor's head. That something landed on their feet in moments and stood tall with the gremlin hung from their grasp by its ear.

"Thought you could get away from me, huh?" Asked the person with a whisperlike voice as its shed its disguise.

That person was an elf with minty green skin, blank eyes and a skinny frame, dressed in brown ninja clothing and a blue braid. Clasped within their free hand was a well-loved blade that vaguely resembled the fangs of some kind of ferocious beast.

"Whirlwind, catch!" Shouted the elf as they tossed the now-fearful gremlin to the skies.

"On it, Stealth Elf!" Replied a voice akin to the sounds of whistling wind while a blue streak zipped through the air.

The streak that was countably Whirlwind slowed to a halt and revealed herself to be a blue wind dragoness with feathery wings, blue eyes and a horn that glowed in the colors of the rainbow. Now completely focused, she merely lowered her head and closed her eyes as a giant rainbow shot out of her horn! The gremlin could only watch in multi-color horror as the rainbow enveloped it in a swirling, kaleidoscopic hurricane of color and pain before said hurricane shot the gremlin off into the distance.

"Not bad, huh?" Whirlwind remarked as she flew down to the earth and gleamed at Stealth Elf, "I've been working on that trick all week!"

"You can brag when the battle's won!" Stealth Elf exclaimed as she turned around and high-tailed it towards the fray. "We've still got an entire army to beat!"

Whirlwind just shrugged and glided by Stealth Elf's side. As she soared between the individual battles, she'd only momentarily pause to shock away enemies with thunderclouds or dispel healing rainbows to allies who were in a pinch.

And above them all was Spyro, who still diligently fought and took in the sights. All around them, enemy forces fell like flies exposed to bug spray equivalent to the power of a thousand warriors, hearts all in sync as they fought for the home they loved and more.

There's no way we could lose! Spyro thought with a proud smile as he flew off.

§

Back inside the floating castle, Kaos supervised the battle from the safety of his portal. A frown encapsulated his fanged mouth as he watched his army fall down in massive numbers. How many was that, now? Ten thousand? Fifteen thousand? He lost count.

"Okay, so I worked it out and… We're losing," Glumshanks said as he showed Kaos a stone tablet that tallied the scores of Kaos and Eon—and sure enough, Eon's score was much higher.

Much, much higher. Enough that Glumshanks had to append a second stone tablet to Eon’s side just to show the length.

"I can see that, Glumshanks!" Kaos snapped as he shot another glare at Glumshanks before he went back to brooding over the battle.

"Do you think we should start Plan B, master?" Glumshanks puckered his forehead with the frown to match.

"No, Glumshanks, I have a better idea!"

Kaos magiced up a folder of plans and grabbed one marked 'Plan Z.' As he pulled out the folder and skimmed through, his eyes widened before a wide smile stretched across his face. Oh, this was going to be good. With this plan in his hands, there was no way he could lose!

"Glumshanks, release… The Hydra."