Just what was Stealth Elf doing well? Well…

"Hyah!" Stealth Elf cried as she backflipped off of a massive chompy's belly and drew her daggers. "Didn't see me coming, did you?"

The chompy groaned as it waddled backwards and collapsed on the floor. It disappeared in a puff of lavender smoke, and unveiled a council of spell punks in colorful robes who cackled as their blank eyes fell on her. Their gazes were so piercing despite their cheery laughter that Stealth Elf couldn't help but draw back, yet she grunted and gripped her daggers.

Around her, she rested on a bright green island with a carpet of dark green leaves that had spring green grass poked out from their massive barrier. Thick vines trailed down over walls of verdant bark, and behid her, a massive, crystal-clear waterfall poured from a canopy of tree leaves, so bright that it shone like jewels in the light! A sight like this might have been a refreshing change of pace in any other situation, but the spells punk that completely crowded the arena spoiled the mood.

While the spell punks laughed, a couple of spell punks clad in purple and pink robes waved their arms, grinned, and shot their hands out while masses of lavender, glittery smoke leaped from their fingertips! The smoke coated the arena in a thick mist at first, but it solidified into bulky, humanoid forms before it transformed into the image of shadow knights!

One of the shadow knights raised its swords to the heavens as it dashed after Stealth Elf, but Stealth Elf just side-stepped its blow. Its sword lodged into one of the thick vines that covered the walls, and the knight futilely tried to pull the sword out. Stealth Elf rolled underneath another knight's swing, twitched her ears and vanished just before the next knight could strike! While the knights craned their heads back and forth as they scratched their helmets, Stealth Elf slipped out of the fray underneath the cover of invisibility and winced.

"These guys sure are persistent," Stealth Elf whispered as her eyes fell on the spell punks, yet zeroed in on the purple and pink-robed spell punks as they chatted among each other, "but, things should be things easier if I could just get those ones out of the picture!"

Stealth Elf leaned in, dashed right towards the purple and pink-robed spell punks and whipped out her daggers! She cried out as she leaped in the skies, and in the moment her invisible cover shed itself—but that didn't matter at this point. She came in so close that those spell punks only watched in horror as Stealth Elf slashed her daggers right across their faces!

Stealth Elf backflipped away as the spell punks collapsed to the floor. They wailed as their covered their faces, and sparkly purple liquid leaked across their bodies like blood. She smirked underneath her mask as she spun her daggers around and went in for the kill, but right before she could jump, a spell punk in green and yellow robes rushed over to the ones she injured and cast a spell over their bodies! Green sparkles cascaded down onto the spell punks' faces, and the blood seeped back into their bodies as they leaped back into the skies.

Stealth Elf immediately stopped in her tracks, drew back, and clutched her blades close to her heart as her brows furrowed down. "Crap, they've got a healer!" Stealth Elf cried as dashed forward. "Guess I know which one I'll really need to take care of!"

Light on her feet as ever, Stealth Elf became one with the wind itself as she dashed across the carpet of leaves and grass. She moved with such speed that leaves flew everywhere in her wake; she raised her daggers next, and slashed at the green and yellow-robed spell punk. Except, instead of hitting it, her daggers hit a barrier of solid wind and flew out of her hands!

Stealth Elf grunted as she tumbled backwards thanks to another gust of powerful wind from the barrier, snatched her daggers off the floor and stuffed them in her pockets. She knelt down and flipped forward, and with one last leap, she transformed from an elven ninja to a massive green tiger! Stealth Elf roared as she pounced back onto the green and yellow spell punk, but the barrier of wind grew into a massive shield that blew her back into the wall. Stealth Elf's disguise vanished into fumes of green mist as she slunk down from the wall, yet she grunted as she staggered back up and leaned back.

"So that's how you want to play, huh?" Stealth Elf asked.

Ahead of her, the green and yellow spell punk chittered as it high-fived another spell punk clad in robes of cyan and white fabric. It was something that only seemed to irritate her as she slipped out a round orb of some sort from underneath her gloves, lifted her head and slipped the orb back into her glove as she flipped out the way!

Right as she escaped, a massive blast of fire and water slammed into the wall behind her, and burned a hole into the walls of vines behind her, but it wasn't the only one! Stealth Elf dashed aside as more of those blasts crashed into the ground, and completely destroyed the vegetation below her feet. One exploded by her feet at last, and it sent her skidding across the floor! Stealth Elf jumped back to her feet in an instant, yet she didn't seem very relieved in spite of her quick recovery. She clenched her hands into fists as the spell punk's cheers and cackles resounded all around her, but aside of them, the shadow knights fixed their gazes on her and pointed right in her direction!

"There's too many of these things!" Stealth Elf whispered. "No matter where I go, there's always something waiting to strike!"

As if to affirm to her statement, one of the shadow knights charged right for Stealth Elf and slashed its sword right at her! Luckily, she noticed in the nick of time, and jumped onto its blade right before it could strike. The shadow knight still seemed quite displeased as it swung its sword around in some attempt to shake her off!

Stealth Elf wrangled that ball out from under her glove, slammed it between her palms and released! The ball itself completely shattered underneath her, and a cloud of green poison shout out from her hands and right into the knight's helmet! The knight’s whole body rattled as the poison seeped into the it, and its sword slipped out of its hands right as Stealth Elf jumped away.

It shuddered with an impressive fury as it stumbled backwards, fell to its knees and exploded! The lavender smoke that was once the entire source of its being grew infected by the poison, and it transformed into a massive poison mist that coated the entire island.

The foliage withered away, and unveiled sparkly green stone as the poison hit its surface. More importantly, the poison seeped into the rest of Stealth Elf's foes as well! The other two knights rattled and exploded the same way the first did, but the spell punks covered their mouths and shuddered as they all collapsed to the ground. Their whole bodies rattled as they groaned, and their eyes could barely stay open as they curled into shaky balls.

"Finally," Stealth Elf whispered as she whipped out her daggers, "a chance!"

Stealth Elf chuckled as she disappeared among the fading poison mist, and reappeared right beside the spell punks! She dashed through and conked them all on the heads with their daggers, but they were already in so much pain that they couldn't even fight back. All they could do was look at her and groan as they all fell unconscious!

Stealth Elf bonked the last spell punk on the head and turned around, chuckled and crossed her arms. All around her, the poisonous mist finally let up, and the world became clear again.

POP! Beside her, the spell punks glowed and vanished in puffs of smoke! She nodded her head in approval as silence resonated through the island, but perked up her head as a small, round orb of glowing green light manifested on the floor!

Stealth Elf twitched her ears as she crept up to the orb, yet gasped as the light disappeared in a flash, and unveiled a conical key with a green, orb-shaped jewel on its top! For a moment she stood in awe, but she chuckled as she knelt down and swept it up in her arms.

"Looks like my work here is done," Stealth Elf said as she strode back to the platform she rode in on, yet froze as the sound of muffled beeping echoed from underneath her gloves.

Stealth Elf frowned as she pulled back her glove to find a bright blue glow coming from her communicator. She gently tapped the buttons on its side, and shifted its screen to that of a spiky line against a blue background.

"Hello, is anybody listening?" Drobot's voice echoed with a slightly staticky tone from the other side. "I just noticed that I received a message earlier!"

"Yeah, that was me!" cried Flameslinger's voice as a second wavy line manifested on the screen. "What's going on, Drobot?"

"Oh, my apologies, Flameslinger. I was a bit… Preoccupied at that moment." Drobot cleared his throat. "Anyways, how have things been on your end?"

"Great! It took us a little bit, but we managed to get one of those keys—"

"And we nearly got roasted doing it!" Ghost Roaster cried over Flameslinger's voice.

"Eh, it wasn't that bad~"

"WASN'T THAT BAD? I NEARLY BURNED TO DEATH! I'M A CHEF, I SHOULD BE DOING THE ROASTING, NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!"

As Ghost Roaster and Flameslinger squabbled over the communicator, a mute symbol appeared over their line while Drobot cleared his throat.

"… Moving on, Stealth Elf, how about you?" Drobot asked.

"Same here," Stealth Elf asked as she walked onto the platform. "Had a run-in with some obnoxious spell punks, but they didn't stop me from getting the key!"

"Good, that means we have two of the three. That just leaves me and Drill Sergeant…"

"Speaking of that." Stealth Elf tilted her head as the platform whirred to life. "How about you two, Drobot? How're things going?"

Right as Stealth Elf asked, a massive crash sounded from from the communicator! Stealth Elf's eyes grew large as she leaned in, yet the sounds of crashing blows echoed still among muffled static. Stealth Elf winced, and her ears drooped as she gazed over at the orange speck in the skies.

§

On the other end of the conversation, Drobot winced and covered his communicator as he lifted his head up.

Around him was an island made of solid orange metal, from its firm floors to walls made of haphazard mishmashes of gears, metal chunks, and other technologically-aligned objects, right down to the streams of oil that poured into a massive oil pool at the back of the island. Above them, a cone-shaped key with a bright orange orb on top sat in a cage made of bright lasers. An orange haze glowered over the entire area, so bright that it almost made everything kind of hard to look at.

But, Drobot didn't need to focus on that.

Rather, his attention fixed on Drill Sergeant, who wailed and beeped as he zoomed back and forth all across the floor. Behind him, a group of greebles in tattered robes and pointed hats made chase! The greebles cackled as they waved their wands, shot out bright blasts of magic that crashed against the floor, and rattled it with such intensity that it tossed Drill Sergeant into the air!

"ACK!" Drill Sergeant cried as he crashed back onto the ground and zoomed off. Drill Sergeant grunted as his wheels spun in place, but finally he wailed and dashed off the greebles cackled again.

Drobot, meanwhile, winced and placed a paw over his communicator.

"I am not certain as to why Kaos thought it would be a good idea to arm greebles with powerful magic," Drobot whispered, "but it certainly worked!"

"Drobot, sir, I am pleading with you!" Drill Sergeant wailed as a gigantic pig chased after him, all while several of the greeble sorcerers clung to his top and shot blasts of magic all around. "End the transmission and help me!"

Drobot gasped as one of those magic blasts exploded dangerously close to where he sat, and jumped away before he could get caught in a second one!

"Unfortunately, they are not good!" Drobot shouted into his communicator right as he pressed its side buttons. "I am afraid that I will have to call you back!"

The communicator went silent, but the battle was loud and chaotic enough! Drobot winced and bounded off as a row of magic blasts exploded behind him. All the while, the greebles sorcerers cackled and pointed at him like excitable kids at a circus show! Drobot's lip twitched as their laughter resonated around the area, but as the last blast exploded behind him, he skidded around and flicked out his wings!

"You greebles behave like animals!" Drobot exclaimed as round, disc-shaped cannons popped out from his wings. "It is about time you learned some manners!"

Massive bladegears popped out of his cannons, slammed into the greebles, and knocked them right off of Drill Sergeant! The greebles grunted as they hit the floor and rubbed their heads, but they weren't the only ones shocked by Drobot's sudden attack.

The pig they summoned to chase Drill Sergeant was so frightened by the attack that it completely ditched Drill Sergeant in favor of rampaging all around! It squealed and oinked as it ran around in circles, but finally it let out a shrill yell as it charged right towards the greebles!

The greebles screeched as their eyes practically popped out of their heads; they scrambled for their staffs and whipped those staffs right at the pig! The greebles all spat out terrified gibberish as they shook their staffs up and down, all while their staffs glowed with a bright blue light. The staffs charged, and a massive blue burst of magic shot out from them and slammed right into the pig!

The pig and blast both completely vanished into smoke the moment they made contact, and the greebles just sighed in relief and wiped smoke from their foreheads. Chills ran down their spines as a large shadow crept up behind them.

"I would not exhale with relief quite yet," Drill Sergeant rumbled from behind them. "After all, there is something that you are forgetting about…"

Drill Sergeant whipped out his laser cannon while his eyes glowed with an ominous red light.

"ME!"

The greebles all gulped and turned around, and the moment their eyes fell on Drill Sergeant, they all ran off screaming! Drill Sergeant wasn't going to let them off easy. He immediately zoomed after them as they dashed across the island, all while his laser cannons shot red-hot lasers at their feet!

"Ha! Ha ha! Now I am the one chasing you!" Drill Sergeant proclaimed as he zoomed across the floor, still hot on their trail. "And this time, you are not getting away!"

The greebles all squealed as they ran even further, but as they ran, one greeble lost its footing and tripped right into the others! The entire group's screams reached an all-time high as they tumbled across the floor in one big ball, but finally slammed into a wall and crashed onto the ground. Their staffs scattered across the floor, and their eyes spun within their heads.

"Give up yet?" Drill Sergeant asked as he wheeled over, and imposed himself over the greebles with the most intimidating face he could muster.

The greebles all screeched as they turned around and grappled for their staffs, waved those staffs around, and teleported away in an instant! With them gone, the laser cage that the key rested in completely vanished, and the key clattered onto the floor!

Drobot smiled as he hovered over and snatched the key off the floor, and he zoomed over to Drill Sergeant's side. The two of them beeped in correspondence as they flew back onto the platform, and the platform whirred back to life and flew off as they took their seats.

The orange island became little more than a speck in the vast skies as the platform drew further and further. But, as it burst through the clouds, it was the sole platform in the skies no longer! Beside it, the platforms that carried Flameslinger, Ghost Roaster and Stealth Elf flew beside. The three platforms drew dangerously close to each other, and with one warble, they all fused back into one gigantic platform while Kaos's fortress came in sight!

Flameslinger, Ghost Roaster, Stealth Elf, Drobot, and Drill Sergeant said not a word, but the grins they made as they held out their keys said everything they needed.

"Now," Drobot said as he peered through the platform's thorny fence and down at Kaos's fortress, where the colors of battle glowed like stars in the night. "Hopefully our allies were able to stand their own."