The odds seemed against her. Chihiro backed into a corner on the small, grassy island she was on with nowhere to run; everywhere around here, there was nothing but sky and blank space, and in front of her was none other than Kaos.

His rippling muscles flexed with power, his red eyes glowed bright as they glared straight into Chihiro's soul, his long, dark hair flowed in what little wind they had, and his pristine white fangs shined against the light as his whole person radiated with evil power. Behind him, he had what seemed like his entire armada of trolls, chompies, and whatever else he may have had, all lead against one little portal master. It was either fight or die—and Chihiro wasn't picking that last option.

"You know, Kaos, there are two things I'm good at: playing video games and kicking butt," Chihiro said as she cracked her knuckles, "and we're not playing any games here."

Kaos was entirely silent. Instead, he conjured blackish-purple flames from his hands and tossed them one by one at Chihiro—but she dodged every one as lucidly and flawlessly as one could! With a mighty cry of battle, Chihiro raced forwards and clocked Kaos right in the kisser! He let out a shout of utter pain as he reeled back from Chihiro's assault, but she wasn't giving up yet! Instead, Chihiro conjured up giant magic spheres and tossed them straight into Kaos's chest!

As Kaos disgracefully fell onto his back, he growled and pointed at Chihiro, a silent command his armada understood well. They all launched themselves at her with weapons and fists alike all bared and ready to fight! With a snap of her fingers, Chihiro evaporated them all in a beam of aqua light! It was just her and Kaos now. The two of them stared each other down with venom in both parties' eyes and silence abound.

"You're not gonna get away this time, Kaos!" Chihiro exclaimed as she sprung forwards and dashed towards Kaos with all the energy she could muster.

As she ran, the world seemed to crumble underneath her feet! Cracks appeared in the crust of the island, entire chunks slowly broke off, and soon enough, the entire island completely fell apart! Kaos merely disappeared as Chihiro kept falling and falling! There was no way! This couldn't be happening! She was so close to defeating him, just so close, but it was snagged away from her yet again!

"Chihiro! Chihiro!" was the last thing she heard as everything went black.

§

"Chihiro, wake up! You've got patrols to send out!" Spyro shouted as he shook Chihiro's sleeping body.

"No, no, Kaos, you're not getting 'way this time," Chihiro groaned as she turned and waved her hand in Spyro's face. "Just give me five more minutes, Gold, I'm beatin' Kaos."

"In Chihiroland, maybe, but here in the real world, we need you to get up so we can take care of these portals." Spyro rolled his eyes as Chihiro continued to peacefully snooze away. "Okay, that's it!"

With a grunt, Spyro yanked Chihiro's blanket off the bed and watched as she was tossed into the air Chihiro let out a shout of surprise as her eyes shot wide open and she stayed suspended in midair for all of five seconds, but, she promptly landed face-first onto the ground.

"Okay, okay, I'm up!" Chihiro's head swerved up to meet Spyro's gaze. "Next time, find a better way to wake me up."

"Next time, maybe you should actually wake up on time." Spyro took to the skies and flew out of Chihiro's room. "Come on, we've got work to do!"

"Geez, Spyro."

Chihiro shook her head, stretched out her arms, and gave Spyro a pout as she walked out of the bedroom. Spyro paused and playfully rolled his eyes, yet smiled as he flew off. With a pound of his wings he darted out of the building like a bullet while Chihiro chased behind him, her eyes wide and her smile even wider. For moments, everything seemed right with the world. Spyro broke a smile for the first time since he recovered from that nasty cold, the wind was so fresh without a manner of chilling nature, and the autumn leaves cascaded over Spyro and Chihiro in such a carefree manner.

As Chihiro chased Spyro over to the heart of the island, however, the air turned grim and cold. Chihiro stopped in her tracks and found that most everybody bustled around with an eerie silence except for Hugo, who stood right in the center of everything and ready to greet.

"Chihiro, you're awake!" Hugo chirped as he clasped his paws.

"And just in time for patrols, too!" Chihiro beamed as she gave Hugo a thumbs up.

Hugo nodded, pulled a paper list out of his pocket, and handed it over to Chihiro.

"Wait." Chihiro frowned as she gazed over at the list and then at Hugo. "You're not coming with?"

"Well, I'd happily do so, but I've run into a little problem." Hugo sighed and looked over the Far-Viewer, which was still as rusty as ever.

Chihiro's eyes glistened wide and eager. "It is an alien invasion from beyond the stars?"

"What would give you that idea? I've just been looking for the next part of the Core of Light, except the Far-Viewer is incredibly rusty and won't turn past a certain point. I need to get some oil for it, but unfortunately there's no oil around here—I'll have to send someone out to fetch some."

"So?" Chihiro's shoulders slumped and her mouth went agape, "That's it? No rats, no doomsnakes, no giant hamsters of the apocalypse? You just need to get some oil for a giant telescope?"

"Exactly.”

"I don't know whether I should be glad or disappointed."

Chihiro's eye twitched for a moment, but she looked down at the list of patrols and beamed. As she squealed with utter delight, she turned around and presented the list to Spyro and Hugo.

"Yes, it's a patrol assignment list, what about it?" Spyro asked as he glazed over the list and sighed. "Island duty, again?"

"No, no, look at the bottom!" Chihiro rapidly tapped a patrol listed as the very bottom of the list. "I get to go on a mission!"

Chihiro looked back at the list and beamed—there, listed near the bottom of the paper under the mission "Search for more info on Fairy Kingdom" were four people—Hex, Dark Spyro, Double Trouble, and Chihiro herself!

"I gotta go, guys, I've got a mission to go on!" Chihiro stuffed the list into her pocket and dashed off to the portal building as she made a peace sign back at them. "Later!"

As Hugo and Spyro watched her, Spyro heaved a sigh and flew in place.

"Spyro, island duty is just as important as—"

"Yeah, I know," Spyro said as he made a weak, understanding smile that quickly turned to a frown, "but I was sick for so long! I should be out making up for lost time! For all I know, Kaos could've—"

"Spyro, you can't help getting sick, can you?" Hugo looked up at Spyro and smiled as Spyro reluctantly shook his head. "I thought not, now—"

Before Hugo could finish, they were all interrupted by an awful, awful noise akin to the sound of metal grinding and a screech that was like nails on a chalkboard at max volume! Both Hugo and Spyro let out exclamations of shock before they immediately cover their ears.

"What is that noise?" Spyro shouted, barely able to take the earache.

"What was that? I didn't hear you!" Hugo shouted back.

"What is that noise?"

"Why are you talking about matted toys?"

"Oh, I'll find out myself."

Spyro groaned and flew out of the group. With a tilt of his head, he flew down to the beach's staircase, all while the torches flared up in a rainbow of colors—though he didn't have the mind to pay attention to it because all the noise completely took up his head.

"What the heck is going on down here?" Spyro asked as he turned the stairs and gazed over at the beach.

There, much to her surprise, was a seafoam green-colored gillperson! They dressed in all sorts of rubber, orange mechanic clothes and worked on some kind of strange machine, all while a rusty red toolbox sat next to them on the sand.

"Excuse me?" Spyro asked, "Who are you?"

No response—the gillperson just kept on working. Spyro groaned as his mouth dipped into a deep frown.

"EXCUSE ME!" Spyro glared over at the gillperson and finally flew up to their side. "EXCUSE ME!"

The gillperson jolted up in their place, turned around, and faced Spyro.

"Alright, alright, no need to shout!" the gillperson exclaimed, their voice akin to that of someone gargling water. "What is it?"

"Who are you?" Spyro tilted his head and frowned while his eyes flashed purple as he readied his magic—just in case.

"Oh, right, you must be one of the Skylanders!" the gillperson nodded and knelt before Spyro. "My name's Gurglefin. Your teammates saved my home from being taken over by trolls."

"No need to bow, it's all in a day's work." Spyro leaned over and eyed the machine next to Gurglefin as the magic he charged slowly vanished. "Next question—what is that machine, exactly?"

"Oh, this!" Gurglefin stretched his scaly arms out and presented the machine with a proud grin. "This is a gift I present on behalf of my people, as a thank you for freeing us from Kaos's control. It's called the Oil Donkey!"

"Oil donkey?" Spyro frowned. Who in Skylands thought that was a good name?

"We didn't name it, I swear." Gurglefin shook his head, and beamed as he presented the machine once more. "What it does is simple, yet efficient—it synthesizes common liquids like water into bona fida fossils fuels—namely, oil!"

"How surprisingly convenient, we actually needed some oil! Thank's a lot, Gurglydin!"

"It's Gurglefin."

"My bad." Spyro grabbed the handle attached to the device and cranked it. "So, how's it work?"

However Spyro cranked it a little too hard, and oil gushed out in one giant stream right on his face! Spyro let out garbled shouts of surprise as the oil splashed him, and pouted as the stream ended to reveal that he was covered in oil down to the neck.

"Like that." Gurglefin barely suppressed a chuckle or two. "You crank the handle, get a container, put it in front of the pipe, and you've got your oil!"

"Thanks for the tip, but I think I can manage."

Spyro wiped the oil off of his face, tuned everyone else out, then began cranking, and cranking, and cranking…

"Surely that's gotta be enough, right?" Spyro asked as he peered inside the oil canister placed at the base of the Oil Donkey…

Somehow, only a drop got inside.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" Spyro gazed inside the container with utter disbelief before he hung his head. "This is gonna be a long day."