Terrafin Battles the Boom Brothers Page 5

  “Attention, all workers,” blared a speaker above Terrafin’s head. “This is Boom One.”

  The dirt shark shared a look with Sonic Boom. That must have been one of the Boom Brothers.

  “And Boom Two, too,” snapped an irritated voice. Was it the other explosive-loving Boom Brothers sibling?

  “Yes, yes, they know that,” said Boom One, sounding more than a little peeved. “Can’t you let me do anything by myself?”

  “Not if I want it done right.”

  There was an irritated pause, and then Boom One addressed the workers again.

  “The next shift will commence in ten minutes. I repeat, ten minutes.”

  “No, you souped-up toaster,” cut in Boom Two. “The shift starts in five minutes.”

  “Ten minutes!”

  “Five minutes!”

  “TEN MINUTES, YOU STUPID BUCKET OF—”

  KLANG! There was the sound of something metal being whacked by a wrench, and Boom One said, “Ow,” before sheepishly announcing: “Next shift starts in five minutes. Thank you.”

  “So, those are the infamous Boom Brothers,” said Sonic Boom, shaking her head.

  “Sounds like they have trouble getting along,” observed Sprocket.

  “Do you think they’ll have any food? Ruff-ruff!” asked Hot Dog hopefully.

  Terrafin gave Hot Dog a sharp look, and then pointed up ahead. “Look, the trail of pebbles ends by those big red doors. I bet they’ve got Rocky in there.”

  “Then what are we waiting for?” barked Hot Dog. “Let’s go!”

  He was about to scamper over to the doors when Sprocket grabbed his collar.

  “No, wait,” she hissed as four Grenade General trolls pushed a cart of explosives down the corridor. “We’ll be spotted.”

  “Oh no, we won’t,” insisted Sonic Boom and, with a wave of her wings, sent three eggs spinning out in front of the advancing trolls. They cracked as soon as they hit the metal floor, releasing a trio of impossibly cute baby griffins. The Grenade Generals gaped at the new arrivals.

  “How adorable,” said one of the trolls.

  “You’re not wrong,” said another. “Let’s eat them.”

  The Grenade Generals lunged at the chicks—who lunged right back. Before the trolls knew what was happening, they were yelping, trying to avoid the snapping beaks of Sonic’s fierce infants. It was exactly the distraction the Skylanders needed. The heroes charged, fists flying, wrenches spinning, wings beating, and fireballs flaming. A few seconds later, Sonic Boom’s chicks had returned safely to their shells, Sprocket was tying up four unconscious trolls, and Terrafin was handing out their pointed Grenade General helmets.

  “It’s not much of a disguise,” Hot Dog commented as Terrafin plunked the helmet onto the puppy’s head.

  “Yeah,” agreed Sprocket. “Only an idiot would be fooled by these.”

  “Afternoon, Generals,” saluted a passing Mace Major.

  “Say no more.” Sonic Boom smiled.

  Wearing their stolen helmets, the Skylanders wheeled the cart over to the doors and peered through their grimy windows.

  “Woof-woof, there he is!” yapped Hot Dog at the sight of Rocky, who was tied to a tiny chair in the middle of the room. A gag was wrapped around the Stone Golem’s mouth, and he was looking particularly sorry for himself.

  “We need to get him outta there,” Terrafin said, trying the doors, but they were locked.

  “Allow me,” said Sprocket, adjusting her goggles and igniting a laser cutter on the edge of her sleeve. Sparks flew as she sliced through the locking mechanism. Soon, the doors slid open.

  “We have to untie him,” Sonic urged the others as they rushed toward the bound golem.

  “Nm, mms m mmmp,” murmured Rocky from behind the gag.

  “Don’t worry, big guy,” Terrafin said, already trying to loosen the ropes that tied Rocky’s arms together. “We’ll have you out in no time.”

  “NM, MMS M MMMP!” Rocky repeated, sounding even more desperate.

  “What’s that?” asked Terrafin.

  “Allow me,” said Sonic Boom, cutting through Rocky’s gag with her sharp beak.

  “Thank you,” the Stone Golem gasped, “but you should have listened to me.”

  “We couldn’t understand you,” explained Terrafin. “What’s the beef?”

  “I was trying to tell you,” Rocky explained. “It’s a trap!”

  “A trap?” Hot Dog repeated.

  “Yes,” called a voice from the doors. “A trap!”

  The Skylanders spun around to see a large robot standing by the doors, hands on hips. Its paintwork was scored and blackened by a lifetime of standing too close to explosions. But that wasn’t the strangest thing about the robot. No, the weirdest thing was that it had two heads.

  “A trap you said was foolproof, Boom Two,” said the left-side head.

  “It was foolproof, Boom One,” said the right-side head.

  So these were the Boom Brothers: one robot with two heads.

  “But you said it would catch the Skylanders, Boom Two,” continued Boom One. “Not a bunch of treacherous trolls!”

  “They’re not trolls, you two-headed twit,” said another, horribly familiar voice. “They’re just wearing trolls’ helmets. Honestly, why am I surrounded by FOOOOOLS?”

  The Boom Brothers wheeled out of the way to reveal a small bald figure in the doorway. A small bald figure who was grinning evilly at the Skylanders.

  “Kaos,” spat Terrafin, throwing off his disguise. “What are you up to?”

  “Isn’t it obvious, Terra-DIM?” the Portal Master screeched. “That grumpy golem is the Earth segment of the Mask of Power. My Earth segment. There’s nothing you can do to stop me, Sky-fools. Not this time.”

  “Wanna bet?” Terrafin snarled, his knuckles cracking in anticipation.

  “Actually, yes.” Kaos smirked. “Let’s review the evidence. GLUMSHANKS!”

  Kaos’s butler appeared behind the Portal Master, carrying a clipboard.

  “Yes, Lord Kaos?”

  “Let’s run through the checklist, shall we? Capture the Earth segment?”

  “Done!”

  Kaos’s awful smile grew wider.

  “Trap the Skylanders in my Tricky Skylanders Trap of DOOOM?”

  “Done!”

  “Summon every troll in the factory as backup?”

  Glumshanks looked over his shoulder to see the army of troll troops now jostling one another on the other side of the door.

  “Done!” he concluded.

  “So, there we have it! Still want to make that bet, Dirtface?”

  Terrafin thought about it for a minute. Kaos was right. The odds were against them. The situation was grim. There was no way they could win.

  “Yeah, I bet you five dollars that you’ll be laughing on the other side of your face by the end of the day . . . fool.”

  “WHAAAAAT?” screeched Kaos. “I call foolish fools fools, foolish fools never call me fool!”

  “Get ready to pay up,” snarled Terrafin, racing toward Kaos and pulling back a massive fist. “Easiest money I’ve ever made.”

  Kaos whimpered, pushed Glumshanks in front of him, and screamed at the Boom Brothers. “The dynamite! Throw the dynamite now!”

  Even as Terrafin threw a punch, the Boom Brothers reached into a drawer in their chest and pulled out what looked like a stick of dynamite. They lit the fuse, threw the glowing red stick under Terrafin’s feet, and tried to shove their fingers in their ears—only to remember that they were robots and didn’t have any ears.

  The dynamite detonated, but there was no flame or explosion. Just funky, groovy music.

  “W-what’s happening?” spluttered Terrafin as he began to dance.

  “I don’t know,” replied Sonic Boom
, her own paws jumping to the beat. “That sounds like Rocky.”

  “It is me,” the Stone Golem whimpered. “They made me sing into their machine. I’m sorry.”

  The Boom Brothers threw more dynamite, and the music got even louder. The Skylanders couldn’t fight. They couldn’t do anything but dance.

  “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaa,” laughed Kaos, popping a pair of earplugs into his already wax-encrusted ear-holes. “My Disco Dynamite works. Bombs that make people dance so hard they’ll be too exhausted to stop me.”

  “To stop you from doing what?” Hot Dog said, panting in the middle of his own hot-shoe shuffle.

  “Taking over Skylands!” Kaos crowed. “What else, you DANCING FOOLS?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Terrafin Has an Idea

  Terrafin had an idea. Gritting his teeth, he shimmied over to Hot Dog, pulling off a perfect salsa roll in the process. Meanwhile, the sizzling mutt had spun into a terrified tango, his feet no longer under the control of his doggy brain. Kaos was almost beside himself with laughter as the Boom Brothers lobbed more and more dynamite into the middle of the room. At this rate, the Skylanders would be dancing themselves into early graves.

  “Hot Dog,” Terrafin bellowed. “When I give you the signal, I want you to bark out a battery of flaming fireballs. Can you do that?”

  Hot Dog nodded, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he broke into a blistering bossa nova.

  Terrafin hand-jived his way over to Sprocket, who was air-guitaring (with her wrench as the guitar).

  “Sprocket, after Hot Dog’s done his thing, you need to untie Rocky, you dig?”

  “Got it,” Sprocket replied, dropping to her knees and sliding across the floor.

  Terrafin spun into a pirouette and leaped across to Sonic Boom like a knuckle-duster–wearing ballet dancer. There was just one more piece of his plan to put in place.

  “Sonic Boom!” Terrafin shouted as the griffin began waltzing around and around in circles. “Screech, sister!”

  “What?” Sonic yelled back, hardly able to hear him over Rocky’s recorded voice.

  “Screech!” Terrafin repeated, dropping into the splits and then twisting to spin on his head. “Screech like you’ve never screeched before!”

  A smile crept over Sonic’s beak as she realized what Terrafin was asking. The dirt shark wished that he could stick his fingers in his ears, but instead he was forced into a rather impressive display of body popping. He gulped. He just hoped it wasn’t his eardrums that popped next.

  Sonic Boom opened her beak and screamed. “SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!”

  Terrafin had never heard anything like it. Sonic’s cry was so loud that his teeth vibrated in his jaws. Sprocket’s goggles shattered, and Kaos’s earplugs popped out of his ears like gold coins from Trigger Happy’s gun.

  The good news was that it also drowned out the sound of the Boom Brothers’ Disco Dynamite.

  The even better news was that they all stopped dancing.

  The best news of all was that Terrafin’s plan worked like the dreamiest dream that had ever been dreamed.

  The moment the Disco Dynamite’s spell was broken, Terrafin gave Hot Dog a thumbs-up. The pup immediately barked out a wall of fireballs that fell perfectly at Kaos’s feet, followed by another and another.

  Now, the thing about metallic floors is that they conduct heat. Before long the floor beneath Kaos’s feet was red-hot. No, white-hot. No, even hotter than that. With yelps that couldn’t be heard above Sonic Boom’s continuing screech, both the Portal Master and Glumshanks started hopping around from foot to steaming foot. Terrafin grinned. Who’s the dancing fool now, buster?

  Behind him, Sprocket was untying Rocky as planned, but she had been spotted by the Boom Brothers. The two-headed robot lurched forward, arms outstretched, ready to stop her.

  Oh no, you don’t, Terrafin thought. He leaped into the air and grabbed the metal siblings’ heads in his huge hands. CLAAAANG! He slammed their heads together, sending their robotic eyes spinning in their cybernetic eye sockets. Stunned, the Boom Brothers veered around in a circle, stars dancing in front of their optic circuits. Then they bashed into Kaos and Glumshanks. The Portal Master and his sidekick were knocked out the doors and into the mass of trolls beyond, while the Boom Brothers toppled over, completely stunned.

  Terrafin’s plan had worked out even better than he’d hoped. The dirt shark darted forward as the doors hissed shut, and slammed his fist into the door controls. With a spark and a fizz the locking mechanism fused, sealing them in.

  They were safe.

  “Well done, guys,” Terrafin shouted, but no one could hear him. Sonic Boom was still screaming, her eyes shut tightly with the effort. The Earth Skylander frowned. “Okay, SB, you can shut it now!”

  Sonic kept on screaming.

  “I said, that’s enough, Sonic!” Terrafin bellowed.

  More screams.

  “THAT’S ENOUGH!”

  His yelling finally got through. Sonic opened her eyes and shut her beak, a hurt look flashing over her face.

  “Okay,” she sniffed. “There’s no need to shout.”

  Terrafin broke into a toothy grin. “You did it, Sonic. You all did it. Well done, guys.”

  “But what now?” barked Hot Dog. “We’re stuck in here. Ruff!”

  There was a thumping sound from the other side of the doors. The trolls were throwing explosives at the locks, hoping to blow them open.

  “Oh no, we’re not,” said Sprocket, peering at a bank of computers on the far wall. “You know how this place looks like a rocket?”

  “What about it?” asked Terrafin.

  “It is a rocket,” Sprocket replied excitedly. “The biggest rocket I’ve ever seen. And that’s not the best part . . .”

  She started pressing buttons and pulling levers, lost in the controls. The Skylanders looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Typical Sprocket. Give her a machine to play with, and she’d forget you were even there.

  “Care to share what the best part is, then?” prompted Sonic.

  “Hmmm?” Sprocket finally looked up. “Oh, sorry. This isn’t just a room at the top of a tower that looks like a gigantic rocket because it actually is a gigantic rocket.”

  “It isn’t?” yapped a slightly confused-looking Hot Dog.

  “Nope. It’s an escape capsule at the top of a tower that looks like a gigantic rocket because it actually is a gigantic rocket.”

  “So we can use it to—”

  “Escape, yes,” said Sprocket, going back to her controls. “The clue’s in the name. I just need a little quiet so I can prime the blasters. It’s been a long time since they’ve—”

  A muffled explosion covered the rest.

  “Those doors aren’t going to last long,” Rocky whimpered, turning to look at the windows as they slowly became crisscrossed with weblike cracks.

  But then, on the other side of the doors, the trolls parted, moving away.

  “Hey, hey, hey,” Hot Dog barked excitedly. “They’re giving up. Losers!”

  Terrafin shook his head. “They’re not giving up. Look.” He pointed at something that was being rolled down the corridor toward them.

  “You’re right,” agreed Sonic, instinctively taking a step back. “They’re just getting out of the way.”

  “Of what?” Sprocket asked absently from the mass of wires she had ripped out of the control panel.

  “Of the biggest bomb you’ve ever seen,” said Terrafin darkly.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The Escape Pod

  “Open these doors, fools,” Kaos screamed through the glass. “Or be blown to KINGDOM COOOOME!”

  “Can you work any quicker, Sprocket?” Terrafin asked, ignoring the evil Portal Master but never taking his eyes off the very round and very large bomb. “As in, c
an you get us out of here right now?”

  “I’m going as fast as I can,” Sprocket said with a mouth full of wires. “It’ll take as long as it takes.”

  Behind the doors, Kaos was tapping his foot impatiently.

  “Last chance, SKYLOSERS. Are you coming out or not?”

  “Not!” barked back Hot Dog.

  “Riiiiiiight!” screeched Kaos. “Light the fuse of the Extra Explosive Bomb of Explosive EXPLOSION!”

  Immediately, every troll in the corridor started patting down its armor.

  Kaos let his head fall into his hands. “Please tell me someone has a match?”

  There was more frantic checking of armored pockets, before a weedy voice was heard from the back of the throng.

  “I do, Lord Kaos! I do!”

  A small troll rushed forward, a huge oversize match held proudly above his pointed ears.

  “Then light it,” Kaos crowed, grinning evilly through the glass. “Light the most bomby bomb in the history of BOOOOMBS!”

  Terrafin had to think fast. There was no way the doors could withstand the force of such a large explosive. His eyes darted around the room until they came to rest on a microphone on the console next to Sprocket. That was it! The intercom the Boom Brothers had used to communicate with the rest of the factory.

  The dirt shark rushed over to the mic, grabbing Rocky.

  “Time for another solo, song boy,” he said, switching on the microphone. A squeal of feedback echoed around the room. “Sing like yer life depends on it—which it sorta does.”

  “But if I sing, you’ll be helpless,” Rocky said sadly.

  “Don’t worry about that,” Sprocket said, looking up from her work to swing her wrench into the next bank of computers. Buttons from the smashed controls shot everywhere. “Instant earplugs. Stick ’em in.”

  The Skylanders did as they were told and, with a shrug, Rocky started to sing. Terrafin spun around, biting his bottom lip (which is always a risky thing for a shark to do).