Skylanders: Found

11. Mags

"Well, hot buttered toast...!" Bellowed Mags as she looked upon the orb. "What have we here?" She turned around to view the group. "It seems we've got ourselves a little problem here!" The purple inventor was prized by Skylanders Academy due to the limitless contributions she made towards it, but – having only seen her a few days prior – Stump noticed something was off.

Her staff was a big give-away. It appeared to be chipped and burnt and, quite distinctly, was missing the gear which sat at its top. The tips of her magenta hair were singed and appeared to have a deep-rooted vine entangled within. Her dress was also quite badly torn, and she was missing one of her thick, leather gloves, exposing a robotic hand. These strange details unexplained, she waltzed towards Cali and returned her helmet back onto her head. "Ah, that's better!" She shouted.

The group looked at her silently. "Uhh, cat got your tounge?" She asked, placing her robotic hand on her hip, "Forget that the whole darn tootin' universe is in danger, why don't 'cha?" She dove her other hand into her pocket and retrieved a small, cylindrical glass container and threw it at the orb. The container suction-cupped itself to the orb and, hereafter, began to shift its form. Thin, black tubes began to expose themselves from the bottom of the container and, as they began to fill with air, they latched onto the orb, too. And then – all at once – the container began to vacuum the orb within, compacting it tightly into its small physique. Within a half-a-minute, the orb found itself completely imprisoned within the cylindrical device, causing it to fall flat on the ground where Mags picked it back up, closing it with a lid.

Chill was stunned by this display. Their problems fixed in an instant. Yet, she couldn't help but feel shame that the actions hadn't been performed by her. Cali was the first to congratulate Mags. "Mags! That was great!" She squeezed Mags into a hug.

"Ah, it was nothing really, I just exhausted this here impenetrable elemental fluid. All I needed was to-"

"Mags, what's going on?" Stump quickly interrupted, "Why did the portal malfunction?"

"Fair questions," she replied, "I can talk it over in brief, but then I gotta go save the cosmos and whatnot." She sat down, setting her staff down on the floor. Stump and Cali followed suit, but Chill chose to stand.

"Well, it all started this morning," Mags clarified, "the Academy's portal it, bless its heart, exploded on us."

"The portal exploded!?" Cali interjected, almost falling backwards in shock.

"Oh, yes, very much so. And then, well, I came to look, and it was quite a dire sight. Within seconds, the entire Academy was engulfed – woosh – in a colourful bubble and I knew I had to get myself outta there." She grabbed a snow globe from her pocket. "This here snow globe thingy-ma-bob is a teleporting teleportation device. It got me away in a jiffy."

"So-" Began Cali, but she was quickly interrupted.

"Hold onto that thought," she ordered, taking a sandwich from her pocket. She then proceeded to systematically devour it. The others could only look on in shock as their questions remained unanswered, the largest of which was the greatest question of all: what in tarnation is going on here? Other questions included inquiries into the current state of the Academy and who was responsible for the madness ensuing. And, of course, why it occurred through the Lake of Legends portal as well.

Shortly later, the Mags was attacked by said questions, "I'm not entirely sure, to tell y'all the truth, but I dropped in on a few other islands before and this problem seems to be widespread."

"Wait, so this is... this is happening to-" Chill began.

"That's right: whatever's happening is happening everywhere. And portals seem to be the key behind it all!"

"So, the portals are infected?" Stump asked, completely transfixed by the numbness of the situation. All of Skylands infested with colourful bubbles that would learn to kill. A nightmare that – surely – only one evil mastermind would think up.

"I suppose so, yeah," Mags agreed, "and my Academy seems to be slap bang in the middle of everything!"

Cali slid her hand over her eyes. "So, what?" She said, "We go to the Academy and slap one of your jar contraptions onto the bubble? Easy."

"No can do," Mags replied, "I've already tried. The power levels coming off the Academy are astronomical; it would take something much bigger to deal with that! Besides, I only got a few of the ol' selective elemental absorption encapsulaters – I call them SEALs for short. Here," she shouted, passing three SEALs to Cali, who quickly made room for them in her bag.

"So, what now?" Cali asked, looking for her old friend for guidance.

"Eh, beats me," Mags replied bluntly, "Most the Skylanders are incapacitated back at the Academy anyway, so I say enjoy your life while you've still got air in your lungs!"

"Mags-"

"I'm kidding; there's time for that later!" Mags chuckled, "While most of Skylands' mightiest heroes are out of commission, we do have you guys – and me!" She put her hand to her chin. "Our best shot at this is to summon all the inactive Skylanders living across Skylands. But – dun dun dun – the mechanism by which we usually do that is linked into the portals. So, we're just gonna have to make do."

"You want us to go around Skylands and... find the other Skylanders?"

"You got it! And quickly, now, the clock's ticking!" Mags exclaimed, "If my calculations are correct – and boy howdy they usually are – you should head to Leviathan Lagoon."

"Of course," Chill smiled, knowing precisely who they'd find there. She nodded respectfully to Mags. Mags nodded and began shaking her snow globe.

"You're leaving us?" Stump questioned.

"It's only natural to let the genius take her own lead on this adventure, thank you very much," she replied.

"But how will we get there?" Cali interposed. Mags laughed.

"I'm sure there's someone can give you a rideover," she suggested. This puzzled Stump, but he decided not to comment furtheron the matter. Mags shook the snow globe intensely and in a flash of bluelight, she was gone.