He never knew how many red flashing lights the building had. Paul assumed this is what happens when your own company turns against you. He had been running for a solid three minutes straight. How many lights had he passed? Twenty? Thirty? Fifty? By the time he got to what he was looking for he had lost count.

Paul Reiche rushed into his office and slammed the door behind him. The room was completely dark except for a faded red from the lights outside. He heaved in and out, trying to catch his breath. There's no time a voice said in his head.

"Ok, Eon, this is what we've prepared for." Paul said. We wiped a small splotch of blood from his temple and flicked it away with his wrist. His movements became faster as the sound of footsteps grew louder. Paul fled to behind his desk and slammed his hand under it. He moved it around a bit and once he found the lump he had almost forgotten about he pushed it.

The footsteps had grown even louder from outside. "Mr. Reiche! This is your last warning! Come with us peacefully or face the consequences!" a gruff and hoarse voice sounded from the door.

Paul looked at the doorway and grew angry at the faker on the other side. "Don't you lie to me! I know who you really are!"

"So you really want to go there Mr. Reiche?" the voice changed into what seemed to be a much darker but clearer, professional voice.

Behind him, the wall flipped revealing a panel with one switch covered by a glass box. Above it a large screen displayed 'WARNING: THIS ACTION IS IRREVERSABLE'. Paul pushed the glass box up and put his thumb on the switch.

"Yes, yes I do!" he pushed the switch and the door burst down. Paul turned around and saw the man who was chasing him. The pale skin, pinstripe suit, and pink buzz cut was unmistakable.

The man smiled evilly. "Wrong answer Mr. Reiche."

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP SLAM

"Hmph, five more minutes stupid alarm clock" he moaned.

"KYLE KYLE KYLE KYLE KYLE!" he heard a shirll voice from the hallway.

"I want my alarm clock back"

Kyle saw his friend Eddy appear in the doorway. His regular bright blue jacket and 'Wacky Jack's Pizza Parlor' green t-shirt. His basketball shorts reached to the very tip of his kneecap. The black curly hair was unnoticed under a red and green hat with the Mexico flag on it.

"What do you want Eddy?" Kyle murmered from under his covers.

"Dude, you will not believe what happened yesterday" Eddy jumped up and down. He was definitely one of the most energetic 15 year old people Kyle had ever met.

"Let me guess. You found something quiet to do in your spare time?" Kyle sarcastically remarked.

"Even better! Check this out." Eddy said.

Kyle's third wakeup call that morning was a newspaper straight to the face that Eddy had chucked. He tugged the newspaper away and ran his hands through his blond bed-head hair. A glance at the newspaper finally made his brain kick into gear that morning.

Toys For Bob Life Sized Replicas Are Alive!

Kyle grabbed the newspaper harder and read through the article. After reading he looked at Eddy suspiciously.

"So you mean to tell me, that Flameslinger is going to random drug stores and robbing them?" Kyle asked.

"Flameslinger? No that is clearly Fright Rider. The article even mentioned it!" Eddy argued.

"You mean you read this thing? You hate reading!"

"When it comes to Skylands I know every little detail."

"Oh really, then why is 'Fright Rider' wearing a blindfold? Or where is Fright the ostrich?"

Eddy looked at the picture accompanying the article. "Huh, I guess you're right."

"And besides, this is probably some drunk guy wearing a blindfold who is really good at robbing stores without looking" Kyle added.

"Oh this isn't the only Skylander siting. About a week ago, something that looked like Wrecking Ball was in a junkyard eating all the scraps. And the day before that, some dude said he saw one of his horses light on fire, say 'The Mane Event', and then ran into the forest. You cannot tell me that wasn't Trail Blazer."

Kyle lifted an eyebrow at Eddy. "You aren't serious are you?"

"Would I joke about this kinda thing?"

"Yes"

Eddy rolled his eyes. "Well I'm not joking about this! The others believe me."

The more Eddy talked, the more Kyle was beginning to believe himself. "Alright, so say Skylanders are actually coming to Earth. What does it have to do with us?"

"Well, I guess nothing, but it's so cool!" Eddy remarked and jumped up and down once more.

Kyle looked at his alarm clock and then back at Eddy. "At 4:00am? On a Saturday?"

"Dude, I couldn't sleep thinking about this."

"Then leave me alone and let me sleep!" Kyle complained.

"Alright alright, whatever ya buzzkill. I'll be down stairs. And your mom is going to let me help with making pancakes in the morning!" Eddy said and then left Kyle to himself.

Before Kyle laid his head back to the pillow two thoughts came to his mind. The first was Oh crud, more burnt pancakes in the morning I guess. His second thought came to him when he looked to the left of his alarm clock. There was a small figurine of what looked like a knight with blue and silver armor. Coming out of every appendage and socket were flames. In his hand was a small sword that was also covered in flames. The knight was standing on a small platform of fire and on the very bottom was a plastic layer of orange. Kyle picked up the figurine. He imagined what it would be like to be his favorite Skylander. He place the figurine back on his night stand and went back to sleep.

The next morning after some surprisingly mediocrely burnt pancakes, Eddy and Kyle went out to meet the rest of their friends at their usual hang out: the library. They had a small corner all to themselves with books galore and it was the perfect place to talk about Skylanders.

Eddy and Kyle were the first ones there. They sat at their table after greeting with Mrs. Garner their favorite librarian and Eddy brought out his Nintendo 3DS. Kyle heard the Skylanders Swap Force theme tune out from the gaming device. After some of the sound effects Kyle recognized were finished, Kyle knew he started playing his game again.

"Which two are you using?" Kyle asked in regards to the Skylanders Eddy had chosen to play as.

"Rubble Charge and Wind-Up" Eddy responded.

"You know Rubble Ranger is a much better combo, right?" Kyle asked.

"Ugh, well my mom made me restart the game and only let me use the ones I own. It sucks because your Free Ranger is really good." Eddy complained. "She told me it was like I was stealing your Skylanders."

"What? That's nonsense." Kyle replied.

"What's nonsense?" Kyle and Eddy jumped and looked up to find Jason and Mason. They were twins that had been Kyle's friends since the third grade. They would've looked completely identical if they weren't so different. Jason was messy. He always wore the same thing twice a day and his frizzled brown hair was kept in a bun to keep from being in his face. His sleeves were chewed on and his shoes, although claimed to be only be worn for three weeks, had brown and green stains all over them.

Mason was the complete opposite. He wore a button up most of the time and always wore jeans. On rare occasions he would wear cargo pants but this was not one of those days. His black Vans seemed to be straight out of the box. His jet black hair that he had dyed almost a year earlier was neatly kempt and was parted to the side nicely.

"What was the nonsense!?" Jason asked again a bit more whiny this time.

"Oh, Eddy's mom won't let him use Skylanders he doesn't own" Kyle answered for Eddy who was furiously mashing the buttons on his 3DS.

"That is ridiculous. How else are you supposed to get all the accolades? We are not made of money." Mason agreed.

"Although that would be sweeeeet" Eddy said from behind his screen and laughed a little. His face scrunched back together and he said, "Aw stupid Geargolem"

Mason and Jason sat in their seats. "So I'm assuming Bombell isn't here yet?" Jason asked.

"You know she doesn't like to be called that right?" Kyle defended his friend.

"Oh come on, she's not here right now. What's she gonna do? Clothesline me with that big stick of hers? I got mad skills, she can't beat me up!" Jason noticed Kyle and Mason looking slightly above his head and making jerked motions with their hands. "She's right behind me isn't she?"

Eddy nodded from behind his screen.

Jason smiled gingerly. "Ehe, alright, should I beat myself up or am I going to have to anticipate it?"

Isabella stepped out from behind Jason. "Nah, you'll be fine. I'm too tired to beat you up today anyway. That's the only way you'll ever win against me anyway."

Isabella was normally well dressed, nothing to fancy. Pants and leggings were often worn with a flowery top or a comfortable dress. Today however she was wearing a plain white t-shirt and athletic shorts. Her dark brown hair was pulled back in a pony-tail. She was a very friendly person even though she picked on Jason quite often. She had joined Kyle's group after moving to the small city in Ohio from Canada because her dad had gotten a new job. The athletic attire usually meant she just got back from a hockey game.

"How did the match go?" Eddy asked.

"Probably my best one!" Isabella said enthusiastically. "I scored two goals, blocked a shot with my side which I am definitely going to feel tomorrow, and I even nocked another girls tooth out!"

"Congratulations Bell!" Mason referred to her nickname.

Mrs. Garner walked over to the group. "Excuse me kids?" she said. Jason jumped from his chair as he was easily startled. "Kyle, your father came in earlier today and told me to hand these to you when you were all here." She handed out small medallions to the group. They were gold and were engraved with different symbols. "Enjoy kids."

Kyle looked at the one he was holding. It was obviously a golden plastic and not real. It didn't make them any less cool though. His medallion had a small red fire on it and it was a crimson red. He looked at the others. Eddy received one with an orange circular shape with three dots in the middle. Isabella received a single sky blue spiral. Jason's medallion appeared to have a green leaf on it and Mason got a grey skull.

"Dude, Kyle your dad is awesome!" Eddy said staring at his medallion.

"Seriously, he knows how much we love Skylanders" Isabella mentioned.

Kyle knew how much his dad enjoyed their love of Skylanders, but the medallions seemed really random. I'm probably just overthinking this Kyle mentioned.

"So you guys wanna grab lunch?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, I could eat." Isabella answered and the others nodded.

Mason, being the more responsible twin, drove the five of them to Wacky Jack's Pizza Parlor. It was one of the cooler places in their town with one school to go to. It had a pretty good arcade, the pizza was mediocre at best, but the best part about Wacky Jack's was Jack the Wombat. Jack was the restaurants mascot, and the man inside was also the manager. He was friends with Kyle's dad and always gave them free tickets, even into their teen years.

After a couple slices of their famous cheese and grease pizza, Kyle wound up by the Skee ball area. He threw a couple shots making it into the 100 hole every time. Before starting another round he noticed something to his left. There was a kid, probably 12 or so, being pushed back by a larger kid who Kyle guessed was around 17, his age. The kid had already paid for the skee ball round but the larger kid was taking the tickets spewing out the slot. Bullying, why is it even a thing.

Kyle wouldn't have it on Saturday, his personal Sabbath. He walked over and tapped the larger kid's shoulder. "Hey, you mind giving the kid his tickets."

The larger kid glared at Kyle menacingly. "Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it?" he grumbled.

What did I expect? Kyle joked in his mind. "I'm not going to do anything. I was just hoping you'd want to listen to words first. But you see my friend over there?" Kyle motioned over to an air hockey table close to them. Isabella was furiously hitting the puck in a rampage making sure that Mason, Eddy, and Jason would all cower below the table in fear of taking a flying disc to the face. "Yeah, my friend over there plays hockey and from the looks of it I think your parents spent a great deal of money on braces. I'd hate to make that money be wasted."

The large kid glared at him and then at Isabella. "Yeah, whatever man" he said and then walked away.

The small kid grabbed all his tickets in a happy bundle. "Hey thanks man, that was pretty brave of you"

"Nah, the guys just a jerk."

"Still, thanks man" he said and then took his tickets away.

Later that night, the band of friends had gone home, even Eddy stayed with his own mother. Kyle's mom asked him to go pick up some sodas from the gas station for movie night. As Kyle stood in line with a Root Beer in one hand and an Orange soda in the other, the man in front of him shuffled his hand in his jacket pocket. The person in front of the man got his things and left. As soon as the man got to the counter, before the cashier could say "Hello, how may I help you" he pulled out a gun and pointed it at the guy behind the counter.

"Look, if you don't want any trouble just put all of your money in this bag" the man said as he pulled a garbage bag from his other jacket pocket and placed it on the counter.

Kyle began to freak out. He was in the middle of a drug store going through a robbery. He saw some people going towards the glass doors. He motioned for them to stop with his hands and to go away. The people got the message and Kyle saw them reach for their cellphones probably to call 911.

"Hurry to up man! I got a pretty itchy trigger finger!" the man said still holding the gun towards the cashier.

"Please sir, I'm going as fast as I can" the cashier panicked.

At that moment, the man dropped the gun and his arm bent into a weird position. He grunted and began to levitate. Kyle's heart beat rose faster and faster until he realized he was levitating too.

"What the, what is going on!" Kyle said out loud. The man looked at him and shrugged at Kyle. "Oh don't give me that, you were robbing the store!"

The man and Kyle began to spin faster and faster until they began to glow. Kyle didn't feel anything except a slight nausea from the spinning. When Kyle stopped spinning and the glowing died down, Kyle saw something that almost made him pass out. In front of him, the man had transformed into a 3 foot red gremlin with two golden guns. Somehow Trigger Happy was standing in front of him. Instinctively though, Kyle kicked the gremlin to the side and he went flying. He hit a glass door in the soda aisle and flopped on his face. Kyle had no idea he could kick so hard.

He went over to check on Trigger Happy until he saw his reflection. Standing there was a knight in blue and silver armor with fire coming out of the appendages and sleeves with a sword lit on fire strapped to his back.

Kyle had transformed into Ignitor.