Legacy of the Portal Masters: The War for Earth

Ch. 2: John, Portal Master of Fire

John Hudson isn't the first person most would pick to call a hero. He was a large, somewhat brutish man, known for his easily sparked temper and love of anything violent. He was only seventeen, but had already been detained by police twice. Though, as violent as he may seem, he has a strict idea of right and wrong. The reasons he had been detained were because two unfortunate men, on separate occasions, had been quietly insulting John's female friend when John overheard them, and proceeded to physically assault them, to the point that the men were kept in a hospital for nearly a month. After the second occasion, the word started to spread, and no one dared to anger the bloodthirsty man. Not many would call him a hero, but all that would change soon...

(Earth: Dallas, TX, Present Day)

As John was driving home one day in his red and orange, 2010 Camaro, heading towards his home, his radio started to mess up, broadcasting static and strange, warbling noises, and he saw five red-hot, strangely glowing objects soar over his car, heading north east, in the direction of his home. Curious, he sped up, going from forty five, which was already above the thirty miles per hour limit, to sixty miles per hour. As he pulled into the driveway of his two story house, he saw the five red, glowing objects in front of his garage door, four in a semicircle around the fifth. As he stepped out of his car and stooped over the figures, the strange glow dissipated, and he found himself looking at four tiny, frozen creatures surrounding a red crystal. Not daring yet to touch the creatures, he picked up the crystal... And gasped, for at the moment he touched the crystal, his mind was flooded with information about Skylands. Within an instant, he knew about the Portal Masters, the Darkness, and the Skylanders. As he looked at the semicircle of creatures, he recognized the blue haired, green skinned Elf archer with a golden bow and quiver of arrows, and wearing a red blindfold, Flameslinger, the blue-and-silver armored flame spirit who was holding his flaming sword in a two handed grip, Ignitor, the red, and cracked with yellow, fingerless fire golem Eruptor, and, finally, the winged phoenix-dragon hybrid who was Sunburn.

"Portal Master, hurry, you must free us!" spoke a voice inside John's head-Sunburn. "Once we are freed, we can protect you until we get back to Skylands."

"I'm not exactly sure I really want you guys full-scale and running around," said John "what's the rush, anyway? I'd rather wait until we get to Skylands."

"'ZERE'S NO TIME!" roared Flameslinger in his Italian-esque accent "USE 'ZE GEM, 'ZE DARK FLAME MAGE IS ALMOST 'ERE!" he continued.

"Almost?" a voice leered from behind John, laced with sinister undercurrents "Why, you Skylanders always do underestimate the real power of the Darkness, don't you?" John spun around, gripping the Crystal in his hand, which seemed to be burning his palm. "Ah, you seem to have found yourself a new Portal Master, hmm?" said the Mage, a tall, tan woman with dark hair John guessed to be 28. She wore a dark black and purple robe, highlighted with orange around the cuffs, collar, and hem, which seemed to flicker as if it were flame. "It looks to me as if that fool Eon made another mistake," said the Mage, "by sending a child after me! Why, I doubt you even know what it is you hold!" she said.

"Now is the time, Portal Master," said another, wise sounding voice in John's head, who he figured to be Eon, "use the Crystal, let its energy spread outward. Free the Skylanders, and summon your weapon and armor." Eon said. The Crystal burned in his hand, feeling almost alive. John shifted his attention to the Crystal, then let his senses fall into those of the Crystal and saw the world as the Crystal did, Glimmering red veined with orange, and felt its power, fiery red, in a sort of well in the middle of the Crystal. He saw a doorway of sorts at the top of the well, and opened it, letting the Crystals' energy spread outward, and directed it towards the Skylanders, who he now stood behind. As the energy touched the Skylanders, he felt a sort of shield around their frozen, miniature forms, containing them. Knowing the shields had to fall, he started tearing at them with the force of his Crystal, and, within moments, the shields fell, and the Skylanders now stood at their full height. Feeling he had done his part, he brought the energy back inside the Crystal, and let his senses rise out of it. He looked at his four Skylanders, then at the Mage, smirking.

"Another mistake, huh," he said, "because it looks to me like I just freed the Skylanders."

"You have your soldiers," the Mage hissed, "and I have mine." With that, she swept her hand horizontally in front of her, and forty Trolls wielding Evilized Fire appeared before her.

"Skylanders! To battle!" he cried.

And so it began.

As one, the Skylanders charged. Flameslinger swung around to the left of the Trolls, firing swarms of arrows at the enemy. Ignitor went straight through to the middle of the Trolls, leaving scorched corpses in his path. Eruptor went around the right side of the Trolls, throwing magma balls and vomiting up lava on the Trolls. Sunburn soared overhead, scorching the trolls where the flame of his breath struck, setting several of them aflame. The battle between the Skylanders and the Trolls lasted less than a minute.

The Mage sneered. She simply threw her hands towards the Skylanders and constricted them in writhing tentacles of pure Darkness. Dread settled in John's stomach as he watched helplessly as his allies were incapacitated and brought to their knees. The Mage leapt at him, snarling red whips of flame sprung from her sleeves and formed broadswords made of blood-red metal, and John's adversary swung at him with a deadly downward cut. a voice in his mind whispered 'Coir...' John shouted the word while he brought his hands in front of him in a futile attempt to protect himself from death. Through his dread, he thought he suddenly gripped some handle, and had weight added to his body...

CLANG!

John looked up to see the surprised face of the Mage, and then the rage that crossed her features. He realized he held a fiery red sword in his hands, he was wearing metal armor, and his sword had caught the Mage's, and they were locked together in a brutal contest of strength. John heaved against the Mage, but though her form was lithe, her strength was immense. John then realized they were at a stalemate... That was, until the spirit of Eon materialized between them with a flash of Light. The Mage howled in pain and fell back, allowing John to step forward stab and stab her in the chest, twisting his blade as he did. She disappeared in a ball of flame.

"Is she... Dead?" asked John, panting heavily

"Evil never dies, young Portal Master," stated Eon "and I must be off. I have to find the rest of the Portal Masters, and assist them as I have you. Make your Portal. Go to Skylands. Hurry!" he commanded, and vanished in a flash of Light.

John wondered how he could make a Portal. He let the energy from his Crystal flow outward and, in his Crystal sight, he saw the rock in his back yard, except it looked strange. The stone was round like a wheel, and lay on its side, with a flat top and a round edge, but in the Crystal sight, it glowed with a fiery red aura. He stalked around his house until it lay before him. Two meters in diameter, and dull brown, like clay. Acting on instinct, John gripped the Crystal tight in his left fist, and flung his right hand, palm outward and a torrent of flame sprung forth, leaping at the mound, consuming it. It may have been minutes, or it may have been hours that John stood there. When his flame suddenly ceased, he looked upon his first Portal. It stood dark red, with faceted sides and a glowing, swirling top of magic.

"Come on," he said to his Skylanders, "we have some ass to kick." And with that, he and the Skylanders jumped on to the Portal and transported themselves to Skylands.