Within the confines of a quaint, kind of lonely village, all was peaceful and quiet as the chilling winds of autumn rustled through the trees, whisked their leaves away to unknown lands, and sent drafts through vacant houses. Finally, the quaint, quiet atmosphere of the town completely disappeared as a gigantic white blast of light rained down from the heavens, and slammed right into the heart of the town square!

"Man, this mission couldn't have come at a better time!" Dark Spyro cried as the light faded just enough to unveil his, Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball's forms. "I've been practicing a new shadow-dashing technique with Cynder, and I can't wait to test it out on something!"

Dark Spyro chuckled to himself as the last of the light beam devolved into faint, rainbow-tinted sparkles, but his grin faded a little as he peered up at Double Trouble. After all, Double Trouble didn't seem nearly as confident as Dark was, given the way he fiddled with the feathers on his staff and frowned; it was almost like there was something he was worrying about.

"You're still worried, Double Trouble?" Dark Spyro asked as he circled around Double Trouble and grinned. "I mean, it's just a couple of giga-boars, right? They're a pain, but it's not like it's anything we can't handle!"

Double Trouble raised an eyebrow at Dark Spyro, frowned as he said something, and pointed to himself and Wrecking Ball.

"What, you think it's weird they made such a big deal about you two specifically needing to come here?" Dark Spyro shrugged his wings and turned around. "That's nothing to worry about!"

Double Trouble's brows clenched further. He spoke with a bit more aggressive a tone, held his staff out and pointed to the buildings around. As he turned back to Dark Spyro and hummed, Dark himself just raised a brow of his own.

"Okay, yeah, I guess it's a bit weird that this place looks perfectly fine even though there was a rampage."

Dark Spyro frowned as he lowered his gaze to the ground, where the stone pavement was perfectly intact and free of hoofprints, or any sort of footprints aside from his own, really. For that matter, the houses were perfectly intact and free of any damage; no debris or other trademarks of a rampage littered the streets, nor were there any signs of life. Even the apple trees planted around the square stood perfectly intact!

In fact, Wrecking Ball tried his hardest to wrap his tongue around one tree's branch and get closer to the apples, but every time he tried, his tongue just slipped and slid right off! As he failed for the tenth time, Wrecking Ball huffed and tried to grab on once more, but a sharp glare from Double Trouble immediately stopped any further attempts.

"But, it's still not that weird! Maybe those boars are just further away?" Dark Spyro shouted as he lifted his head and grinned. "In fact…"

Dark's eyes trailed towards a shadow cast by one of the houses above, and his grin stretched even wider as he jumped inside. "I'll go check it out now!"

The house's shadow rippled as Dark Spyro jumped in, but soon a vaguely draconic face formed in its murky darknes. It winked at Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball just before it vanished from view. Double Trouble sighed as he scratched his head with his staff, and floated after Dark Spyro's traveling shadow form…

"HELP! PLEASE! IT'S AWFUL!"

But just before he could tail Dark Spyro down the alleyways, the cries of distress that echoed across the winds caught his attention! He and Wrecking Ball both whipped around the faint, terrified cries of someone with a kind of hoarse voice intermingled with the sound of squealing pig noises and destruction just over the horizons!

Double Trouble gasped, and gripped his staff tight as he spat something out to Wrecking Ball.

"You've got that right!" Wrecking Ball exclaimed as he bounced up and down with the widest grin on his face he could muster. "Now let's go, let's go! I wanna beat those piggies up too!"

Double Trouble grinned, and with a simple wave of his staff, the two of them disappeared in shimmering light and completely vanished from the town square in the blink of an eye! While that shimmering light enveloped the space they once stood in, a burning comet dashed out from its spherical form and streaked across the town square!

In no time at all, it left behind the familiar stones and empty houses of the town square for the vast fields of grass and trees. It moved with such force that the grass below shuddered and quaked, but that comet shrieked to a stop at the top of one hill. With it finally stopped, the comet burst into sparkles and dropped Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball onto the grass—though, the two of them were so disoriented that they hadn't even realized it at first. All they could down was stumble to and fro across the grassy surface while their eyes spun in circles, but finally Wrecking Ball took an unfortunate trip and crashed right into Double Trouble!

With a cry of shock from Double Trouble, the two of them crashed down the hill and bowled down the hill. This time, that mysterious person's cries and screams weren't the only thing in the air! Rather, Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball joined in as they tumbled across bumpy, grassy ground, finally flew off the side of the hill and crashed at its foot! Both of them grunted as they slammed face-first into the ground below, but thankfully, they hadn't been injured at all aside from some nasty bumps and Double Trouble's mask turning crooked!

"Normally I like rolling around," Wrecking Ball groaned as he heaved himself up and sat down, all while he fruitlessly tried to push down the bump on his head with his tongue, "but that hurt a lot!" Wrecking Ball's eyes watered as his tongue retracted into his body. "Owie, owie, owie…"

Double Trouble grunted and adjusted his mask back to his proper place with one single twist, complete with a crack like he cracked his neck. He mumbled something to himself as he grabbed his staff off the ground and wiped the dirt from its crystal.

"You there!" cried a panicked voice not unlike the one that called over the horizons not moments earlier. "You're Skylanders, right?"

Double Trouble's feathers twitched as the sound of snorting hit the air. He whipped around and gasped!

There ahead of them was a stout mabu man. He dressed in ragged shepherd's clothes, and held a half-broken shepherd's crook in paw; he winced and bit his lip as he glazed over Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball. His brown eyes were bright with panic, though oddly enough, they seemed kind of glassy? Nobody had any time to get closer and linger, for the sounds of snorting and crashing up ahead drove everyone's attention away!

"You bet'cha!" Wrecking Ball chirped as he jumped to all four feet, his earlier pain now completely forgotten. "We're Skylanders through and through and through!"

"Good timing, 'cause I really need your help!" the mabu exclaimed. His eyes narrowed for a bit, and he thrust his crook towards the west while its hook finally snapped off. "Those giga-boars over there have been giving us a run for our money for days now! Unfortunately, nobody here's strong enough to take them down…"

Double Trouble smiled and spoke as he polished the crystal on his staff with his magic staff, but his cool and reassured aura turned a bit more cold as he turned his attention to the cave. He raised his wand and got ready to wave it, almost as if he was going to teleport, but he didn't need to in the end!

A couple snorts echoed from the cave's hollow insides, followed by scuffling and squealing and crashing. Before anyone knew it, a mass of squealing, pink monsters burst out of the cave and stampeded down the cave's hilltop!

The mabu man screamed and scrambled backwards, and his screams only grew more intense as Wrecking Ball dashed behind him and yanked him by the collar of his shirt!

"Where are you taking me?" the mabu demanded as he tried to struggle out of Wrecking Ball's grasp.

Wrecking Ball just giggled with no attention paid to the mabu's question as he wheeled over to a nearby tree. He gingerly stuck the mabu to one of the tree branch's through a hole in the back of the mabu's shirt, and rolled off once more!

"Just stay there!" Wrecking Ball shouted as he wheeled back to Double Trouble's side. "We'll take care of these weird boars faster than you can say pork soda!"

The mabu, however, just grimaced as he wiped the slobber off of his clothes.

While he was busy cleaning himself off, Wrecking Ball leaped forward and landed right by Double Trouble's side with a wide grin. That brief moment of glee was forgotten as they both glared down the monsters that accosted them. With their house-sized bodies, and large, chipped white tusks stained with crimson blood and mangy pink fur, there was no denying that the monsters they faced now were giga-boars! There had to be about nine or ten in total, and their tiny black eyes were bloodshot as they huffed and snorted with such rage that it blew down the grass below them. They scraped their chipped, ragged hooves against the ground as they got ready to charge…

But before they could, Double Trouble waved his wand and shot a burst of magic right in front of the giga-boars! The giga-boars all squealed and rushed back in full anticipation of an attack, though instead of hitting them, that magic blast just stopped short and exploded into a trio of Double Trouble clones! All the giga-boars could do was sit there as the clones giggled and blew raspberries at the boars. The giga-boars growled, and squealed as they made chase after the Double Trouble clones!

One clone diverted to the north while the other two dashed south, both with a boar on their tails, but what those boars didn't realize was that they were led into a trap! As the three clones came dangerously close to crashing into each other, they giggled and disappeared while the boars that tailed them crashed head-first into each other!

As those three boars groaned and collapsed onto the grass, Double Trouble grinned and wiped his hands with a wide, pleased grin on his face. A warm, powerful wind brushed down his back and sent chills down his spine. Double Trouble gripped his staff tight, whipped around, and shot a massive blast of magic right towards the giga-boars that sneaked up behind him!

The giga-boars soared through the air as they flailed their stubby legs, yet squealed as Wrecking Ball slammed into one boar's side and shot it into another boar beside it! As the two of them slammed into each other, they skidded across the ground and slammed into a row of boars behind them with such force that all the boars fell down like dominoes! The boars grunted and snorted as they flailed around and tried their hardest to get back up, but they weren't going to get that chance; not on Wrecking Ball's watch, at least!

"Here I go!" Wrecking Ball cried as he scampered towards the tree where the mabu shepherd dangled away! As the tree's branches came closer and closer in sight, Wrecking Ball grinned and licked his lips. "You're gonna get wrecked!"

Wrecking Ball cackled and flung his tongue towards one of the branches, the very same one he had hung the mabu shepherd from, in fact! The shepherd screamed and leaned back as Wrecking Ball's tongue wrapped around the branch, but his panicked screams came to a standstill as Wrecking Ball swung around the branch like it was a gymnastics bar! With every swing he made, Wrecking Ball grew faster and faster, until he was little more than a blue blur to the naked eye. With one last swing, he shot off of the branch and slammed right into the boars with such force that it scattered them all across the plains!

The boars all squealed as they flailed their legs around, but it only lasted for a moment before they finally fell unconscious—closed eyes, lolling tongues and all!

"Ta-dah!" Wrecking Ball cried as he fell to the ground and hopped up to Double Trouble. "All done!"

"AAAAAAAAAAA!"

Wrecking Ball flinched as something crashed behind him, turned around and giggled as the mabu shepherd grunted and crawled out from underneath the now firmly broken tree branch. "Whoopsies, guess I forgot something."

Double Trouble stifled a chuckle as he turned his attention back to the unconscious boars, waved his staff towards them and gestured to Wrecking Ball.

"Yeah, yeah, I wanna herd them up!" Wrecking Ball giggled as he bounced up and down. "I even practiced how to bark like a sheep puppy, too!" Wrecking Ball made a very cheeky grin towards Double Trouble. "It's really good, so I'll do it now!"

Wrecking Ball took a deep breath in, out, cleared his throat as the sun above crept up the sky and shone down its light like a comet—and in that moment, what left Wrecking Ball's mouth wasn't a howl or a bark, but a gasp!

As the sunlight shone over the plains and brightened the natural world with its colors, those boars shuddered and flickered. Their bodies became more translucent, almost as if they were holograms or perhaps even effigies!

Double Trouble gasped, yanked Wrecking Ball by the paw and tried to dash away. Bars made entirely of shimmering, pink magic energy erupted from the ground before either of them could escape, and formed an open-ceiling cage around their arena! Double Trouble snarled, whipped out his staff, and shouted out as its crystal glowed with a bright, rainbow light… That completely faded immediately afterwards! While he gasped and examined his crystal, Wrecking Ball shot out from beside him and slammed into the cage, but all that achieved was getting him electrocuted.

"OWIEEEEEEE!" cried a static-charged Wrecking Ball as he bounced off the magic cage, shook off the clinging electricity and charged once more. "AGAIN!"

But, his next attempt was just as unsuccessful as his first; once again, he was completely electrocuted and tossed aside! Wrecking Ball wasn't fazed in the slightest, for he just slammed into the cage, got shocked and bounced off in a never-ending cycle…

"Oh, knock the act off, you stupid worm! That cage isn't going down no matter how many times you charge it!"

As Wrecking Ball bounced back for what was probably the fifteenth time, Double Trouble winced and turned around. That voice was nothing like any of them had heard before! It was full of malice and sinister tone, and it sounded strikingly similar to Voodood's voice; but, Voodood wasn't with them at all! In fact, the only ones there were Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball themselves, and that mabu shepherd, who chuckled as he crept towards the two of them with his hands behind his back. As the sunlight hit his body, that body completely shuddered and flickered while his eyes turned blank!

"You've walked right into a trap!"

The mabu's body flickered between its regular appearance, several other shapes entirely, but finally solidified into a purple clone of Voodood right as it phased through the cage! Double Trouble gasped and sputtered as he pointed his staff towards the Voodood clone, but it only cackled and pushed the staff down with a satisfied grin on its face.

"It is I, the Evil Orc Warrior, indeed!" the Evil Orc Warrior crooned as it turned to its side. "But, I can hardly take credit for this ploy in its entirety."

A warbling sound echoed throughout the cage as reality itself bubbled and rippled beside the Evil Orc Warrior, and out from nowhere manifested a purple clone of Double Trouble with that same evil aura and blank eyes.

"I have to admit," the Double Trouble clone remarked as it fiddled with the feathers on its staff, "that has to be some of my finest illusion work to date, and that no-sell spell's pretty great too~"

Double Trouble snarled as his clone shot him one of those smug glares, and spat out something towards it with so much vitriol it caught Wrecking Ball's attention!

Wrecking Ball paused in the midst of his attempt to give himself a concussion, turned around and squeaked as it caught sight of the evil clones! "Evil Orc Dude, Evil Tiki Man guy! What're you doing here?" Wrecking Ball cried as he scrambled back!

Wrecking Ball snarled, curled into a ball and slammed into the ground with such force that it tossed him well above the cage's empty top. Just before he could make a grand escape, something beaned Wrecking Ball in the head and shot him right back into the cage's wiring! As Wrecking Ball cried out from the electrocution, Double Trouble gasped and yanked him from the cage's electrical grasp!

"Owie, that really hurt!" Wrecking Ball cried as tiny tears of pain formed in his eyes. "You big meanie!"

As Wrecking Ball spoke, yet another purple clone, one in the shape of Wrecking Ball himself, landed to the Evil Orc Warrior's right and scoffed.

"Oh, stop acting like an impetuous child, you whelp!" scoffed the Wrecking Ball clone, who would have surely rolled its eyes were they not completely blank.

Wrecking Ball, however, just sniffled before he finally burst into tears. "I DON'T UNDERSTAND BIG WORDS!"

"I can't believe that's what I came from." The Wrecking Ball clone huffed and turned away. "Surely, if you didn't realize that you had walked right into a trap, you would be too simple to understand anything!" The Wrecking Ball clone smirked and licked its lips. "After all, didn't you find anything suspicious about how you two specifically were asked to come here, or how pristine the town looked in spite of it being the site of a rampage?"

Wrecking Ball whimpered and wiped his tears with his tongue as he hopped out of Double Trouble's arms, but Double Trouble didn't even notice. His jaw gaped down without him realizing! He stood in stunned silence, but he quickly shook it off as he glared down the evil minions and spat out raw, angry words.

"Why did we do this? Why would you ask such an obvious question?" the Evil Tiki Man crooned before it shook its head. "Well, I suppose you wouldn't know about Lord Kaos finding the Eternal Magic Source's location!"

Wrecking Ball let out a sharp gasp, then bounced up and down with wide eyes. "We, we, nobody knows where the Eternal Magic Source is! We don't have a map or anything that we were gonna take to it!" Wrecking Ball exclaimed, but winced as Double Trouble glared and scolded him. "And, and, even if we did, we wouldn't tell you!"

"You don't need to, you stupid worm!" The Evil Tiki Man grinned as it fiddled with its staff. "One of our cohorts attached a spy-fly to a buddy of yours during a prior mission, and it told Lord Kaos everything!"

"Yeah!" chimed in the Evil Orc Warrior as it whipped out its axe. "Once we get you out of the picture, we're going there and getting the Eternal Magic Source ourselves!"

Double Trouble spat out something as he whipped out his staff, all while its crystal crackled with magic lightning! He broke into a grin as the lightning surged and sparked all around the crystal's smooth, round surface, but that grin of his quickly faded as the lightning fizzled out like a dead candle!

"Oh, how quickly do you forget~" the Evil Tiki Man crooned as it flew inches away from Double Trouble's face and hovered back. "My barrier here completely nullifies all your magic attacks! You're a sitting duck here!"

Double Trouble winced, but that brief moment of fear faded as he tossed his arms aside and stormed right for the Evil Tiki Man, gasped, and jumped back as the Evil Orc Warrior jumped in front of him and slashed the ground with its ax! It cackled as it lurched up and rushed towards Double Trouble, but Double Trouble intercepted the blow with his staff. The two of them pushed and shoved against each other, ax versus staff as both parties struggled to come out victorious.

While Double Trouble and the Evil Orc Warrior rallied against each other, the Wrecking Ball clone beaned Double Trouble on the head and sent him crashing backwards into Wrecking Ball! Wrecking Ball and Double Trouble cried out as they collapsed onto the grass, but while they grunted and lurched up, bright pink magical rope swirled around them and bound them tight together! The two of them gasped as their eyes fell on the rope's pink glow and tried to squirm their way out, but it was no use—the rope was too tightly bound to allow escape!

The Evil Tiki Man cackled as it admired its work, and it turned back to the Wrecking Ball clone with that same smug grin on its face. "Shall we go, Evil Grub Worm?" The Evil Tiki Man asked as it twirled its staff.

The Evil Grub Worm nodded with an almost offsetting giggle, yet it stood frozen still as the Evil Tiki Man waved its staff. The two of them turned into perfect clones of Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball in the blink of an eye.

The real Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball sat in shocked silence as they gazed over their now-identical clones. Their shock only grew as a small, blue pager levitated out from under Double Trouble's mask, and found its way into the Evil Tiki Man's hand! The Evil Tiki Man smirked as it pressed the button, but its smirk faded into something more serious as it glared back at the Evil Orc Warrior.

"You! Report back to Lord Kaos for us!" the Evil Tiki Man demanded as it clenched the pager.

"Wait, I don't get to go?" the Evil Orc Warrior pouted as it wrung the handle of its ax. It sniffed as it turned away from the Evil Tiki Man, but whimpered and stumbled back from the glare the Evil Tiki Man shot it. "Alright, alright, I'll do it!"

The Evil Orc Warrior tapped the communicator on its wrist, whispered something into its speaker, and vanished in a flash of bright light. While the Evil Orc Warrior's light faded into faint sparkles that just barely shone against the bright afternoon light, however, the Evil Tiki Man grinned and stuck its tongue out at Double Trouble.

"See you, suckers!" the Evil Tiki Man cried as it and the Evil Grub Worm disappeared in a similar flash of light!

Double Trouble snarled as the Evil Tiki Man vanished within the light, and tried to struggle against the ropes once more, but it seemed as though they kept him tight! So, Double Trouble did the next best thing and shouted at the Evil Tiki Man and Grub Worm right as they disappeared.

Though this seemed like a futile display of anger, the winds picked up on Double Trouble's screams and carried them across to the town square, which wavered and shimmered in the growing afternoon light…

Not that Dark Spyro noticed as he popped out the door of another empty house and sighed.

"That's strange. I've checked everyone house, like, a billion times now, but nobody's here!" Dark cried as he swished his tail. "What's up with this place?"

Dark frowned as a wavering, warbling sound echoed around him, grunted and lifted his head right as the entire town turned shimmering and translucent! He screamed and backed right into the house he just exited, but it just disappeared into thin air and lead him to fall on his back! Except, he didn't hit the solid stone or wood floors of the village; rather, he hit soft grass, for the entire village disappeared and left only endless grassy plains behind!

"The heck?" Dark cried as he jumped back to all four paws and swerved his head around. "What's going…" As Double Trouble's faint cries hit his ears, Dark froze and bit his lip. "Double Trouble?"

While the cries continued on in the distance, Dark Spyro jumped up and flew down the hills of endless, eerily peaceful grass.

"Yeah, something's definitely up!"

Dark dashed down the hill all the cries grew louder and more intense, and as he flew about halfway down, his already-grim look soured further as he caught sight of the cage's bright, pink top!

"A cage? What's that doing here?" Dark whispered as he finally hit the bottom of the hill.

Dark frowned as he dropped down onto the grass, and narrowed his eyes as he crept closer and closer to the cage; all the while, Double Trouble's cries and shouts grew louder and more prominent.

"Double Trouble? Wrecking Ball?" Dark whispered as his eyes went wide. He flew over to cage, frowned as he held up a claw to the bars, but yelped and stumbled back as static electricity surged through his body!

"So much for charging in." Dark smiled as his eyes fell to the shadows below. "Guess I'll just have to take the backdoor!"

Dark Spyro leaped into the shadows and slunk right past the magic cage, then popped inside to find that he was right. There before him sat Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball, all tied up together with nowhere to go! Double Trouble grinned and shouted towards Dark Spyro, but Dark wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as he glanced down Double Trouble.

"Double Trouble, something's not right here!" Dark exclaimed as he looked around. "That village just completely disappeared!"

Double Trouble sighed and rolled his eyes as he shot back at Dark Spyro, a smart remark that Dark returned with a huff.

"Yeah, yeah, you were right, whatever." Dark rolled his eyes with a scoff and frowned again. "Hey, how'd you guys get all tied up, anyways?"

Double Trouble cleared his throat and seemingly went to explain, but the moment he opened his mouth, his eyes went wide with realization! With a shake of his head, he barked out something towards Dark Spyro and nudged his chin towards the ropes.

"Just get you out of here?" Dark repeated as he tilted his head. An almost devilish grin crept across Dark's muzzle as he got up and flew behind Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball. "Alright!"

Double Trouble seemed pleased as he rambled along to Dark Spyro, but that ramble quickly cut short as Dark yanked him by the ropes, and flew higher and higher above ground! Double Trouble's cheerful speech turned to concerned sputters as Dark Spyro flew just high enough that he reached the top of the cage…

"Alley-oop!"

Dark swung around and tossed Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball right over the cage! The two of them screamed as they crashed down like heavy stones towards the ground, but finally, a thump and an audible groan alerted Dark Spyro of their arrival! Dark grinned, swept back down, and popped back up as he tossed Double Trouble's staff over the cage as well!

Double Trouble cried out as his staff bonked him on the head, scoffed and shot Dark Spyro a glare as Dark floated down and beamed.

"Hey, I did get you out of there!" Dark retorted as he raised a paw.

Double Trouble rolled his eyes as he shot back at Dark Spyro, yet fixed those eyes back on his staff. As he glared down that simple staff, it glowed with a bright light, hovered above the ground and waved itself like it had come to life! With that simple wave, the ropes that bound Double Trouble and Wrecking Ball magically came undone, and they were free once again!

Wrecking Ball grinned as he rolled to and fro across the plains and cheered, but Double Trouble was far less carefree! Rather, he dashed over to Dark Spyro's side, whispered in Dark's ear, and winced as Dark Spyro jumped backwards.

"They're WHAT?" Dark Spyro exclaimed as he yanked out his pager and slammed the button as rapidly as he could. "We gotta get back there and stop them!"

Double Trouble nodded as he held out his hand and summoned his staff back to his side.

Wrecking Ball balled over and squealed as he jumped on Dark Spyro's back! "Yeah, yeah, we're definitely gonna stop those meanies!" Wrecking Ball proclaimed as he pattered his feet on Dark Spyro's back, froze and tilted his head. "What are we stopping them for, again?"

But, Wrecking Ball didn't get his answer; all three of them were immediately swept up in a pillar of light and whisked away from the island's grassy plains.