“Darn it, why does this damn thing not work?”

Peter put his Thumpback figure on the portal of power once more. The game didn’t even respond at all. Peter glared at the portal, removing the lit Thumpback figure. Peter tried to put Whirlwind on, only to hear the familiar artifacts when the Skylanders game recognized a figure.

“Twists of Fury!”

“Okay, it’s clearly not your fault… what the heck is wrong with this?” Peter asked.

He removed Whirlwind from the portal of power and put Thumpback back on. Nothing happened.

“Damn.” Peter thought out loud. “Is this thing broken?”

He realized something really fast.

"Whoa, am I swearing? Eh, what the hell. Nobody can hear me."

Peter tried it again and and again, only for nothing to happen. Peter even unplugged the Portal of Power from his game system and plugged it back in. He didn’t hear any noise suggesting that it recognized the Thumpback figure, nor the familiar Scottish voice saying “Hail to the Whale!”

“The hell is up with this thing?”

As soon as he put the figure on, the portal of power seemed to open up in front of him. It didn’t look like the plastic toy had broken – rather, like a light seemed to form a kind of portal around it. Peter was quite intrigued at this.

Until he noticed his Thumpback figure sinking into this portal, like it was standing in stereotypical quicksand. His eyes widened as his hands dove for the Thumpback figure.

“Hey! That’s mine! Give it back you damn thief!”

Peter reached into the portal to grab his Thumpback figure. Only he instead felt something grabbing his hand, rather than his own hand grabbing the Thumpback figure. He looked right at his wrist, only to find a rather cold looking hand reaching out and grabbing onto it. Before he could do anything, the “hand “yanked him down into the portal.

At least as much as it could. As soon as it reached Peter’s shoulder, his head and torso got stuck in the portal. His head even slammed into the table, as per Newton’s first law of motion. He felt the hand trying to pull him and further in, only he didn’t actually move. It was like trying to stuff an entire pack of jelly babies in your mouth at once.

“Hey, whoever the fuck you are, quit it! You’re going to dislocate my shoulder!”

Fortunately for Peter, it stopped trying to yank him in. Unfortunately for him, the portal seemed to respond. He noticed a bunch of shadowy tendrils emerging from the portal of power. Some of these tendrils seemed to form shapes that were recognizable as hands.

“Uh oh.”

They all grabbed onto Peter’s torso and neck, then started pulling him through the portal of power. Before he could react, he was slithered further and further in, as if through a slide that was a tad too small for him. Fortunately for him he wasn’t claustrophobic - but even then, it was really really uncomfortable.

“Hey! Let me go, whoever the fuck you are!”

Soon he felt his legs being constricted by the tunnel, as he was pulled further and further down into this wormhole. He couldn’t see exactly who was controlling this hand that had pulled him down. Nor could he see whatever the shadowy hands were. After awhile, he landed right down on the ground, the other hands letting him go.

“Well about time – great you probably mangled my portal of power. Where is my Thumpback figure?”

Peter didn’t get an answer. Until that was, he could see a mass of shadows in front of him, looking almost like someone had spilled ink in water.

“Do you mean… this?” A voice asked as a hand emerged from the shadowy mass.

Peter took a look at this hand – rather, an arm. It was a rather thick looking arm, something that looked black. It had to have been like those shadowy arms that pulled him in. Where the hell did Peter get sent to now?

Until that was, he noticed what was inside the hand’s grasp – it was his Thumpback figure, tightly held. (That was one big hand to hold a giant like that!)

“Hey! That’s mine!” Peter said.

“You mean it WAS yours.” That voice said as the shadowy appendage crushed the plastic figure to pieces, like it was made out of flimsy balsa wood.

Peter’s eyes widened as the bits of Thumpback fell to the floor. His mouth dropped open, looking at the figure. The shadowy hand retreated into the darkness, still leaving that inky mass floating around. That bastard – he bought that Thumpback figure when it came out!

“What the fuck! Dude! FUCK! That was rude! Do you know how much I liked that?” Peter wished he had a flashlight so he could make that shadowy creature scream in pain.

But since he didn’t have such, he had to give punishment the old fashioned way. Peter cracked his knuckles and walked towards the inky mass – making sure he didn’t step on the remnants of Thumpback in the process. The inky mass of shadow didn’t bother to move at all. Peter pulled his fist back and threw it at the shadowy mass.

He hit something cold – something that felt a little bit… scaly? The shadows parted to reveal a rather light blue and white looking reptile – something like a dragon. A dragon that did not look pleased to see him. Peter looked a little more over the dragon, noticing the shadows seemed to be emerging from the spikes on his back, as well as the shadow that he cast on the floor. Pale cyan scutes ran down the front of his neck and underbelly. And on his front legs looked to be a pair of black gauntlets, with eight marbles attached to them. Strange, there was a blue one that looked to be glowing, and right next to it was a light blue and a greyish one. On the bottom looked to be a purple one.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you,” Peter said. A real life dragon – he had always wanted to see it. He took a few steps back, still making sure to avoid the Thumpback. He was torn – some part of him was excited to see a quadrupedal dragon like this. But another was still pissed – after all he did destroy one of his favourite skylanders figures.

“It takes much more to hurt me.” The dragon said. “Consider yourself lucky.”

“Lucky? Well of course I’m lucky to meet a dragon… but even then… why in the fuck did you break my favourite Skylanders figure?!”

“Because, where you’ve gone, you won’t be needing this little toy. How could they disrespect some of those guys by making them into children’s playtoys. Pathetic.”

“AHEM!” Dragon or not, he was disrespecting Thumpback.

“Oh sorry… Do you know why you won’t be needing that anymore? Because you will never be playing with toys again, unless you consider the citizens of the Skylands or the Underworld to be your toys.”

“What? Skylands? Underworld? Are you a Skylander? I’ve never met one like you before – especially a dragon wearing gantlets. Will I get to meet Cy-“

“Don’t you dare speak her name.” The dragon snapped. Peter was instantly silenced as the dragon paced around the human.

While the dragon was pacing around him, Peter got a good look at its other gauntlet., the one on its left foreleg. The other gauntlet seemed to have orange, green, red, and a purple looking one. Strange, those were the exact colours of the Skylanders elements. Peter was even more torn at this revelation – did he get teleported to the Skylands? Or wait, was he in the underworld?

“Well what are you going to do to me? I’ve never seen a Skylander like you before!”

“That’s because I am not a Skylander. If you want to refer to me technically… I am Frygus. Servant of the Undead Dragon King, Malefor.”

“Wait? Malefor? But I thought he was-“

“SILENCE.” Frygus said, as a shadowy hand reached out and covered Peter’s mouth, silencing him immediately.

“Soon, you will be joining me, along with the rest of your own reality.” A sergal grin spread across Frygus’s face, as his own eyes glowed a tad. Peter suddenly looked into them and found himself unable to look away.

Peter soon felt himself blinking, and then the shadow had wrapped around his body. It pooled around his waist, before seeming to vanish. Peter looked down at his waist, almost immediately recognizing the darkness to have formed some kind of dark belt – with a buckle that looked just like the steering wheel of a ship. Just like what Thumpback wore.

“Thumpback doesn’t serve Malefor!” Peter said.

“Thumpback doesn’t –yet. However, you are not Thumpback.” Frygus said.

Peter’s shoes were ripped to shreds as his feet expanded greatly. Not only did they lengthen, but he felt his calves widen. They soon doubled – no tripled in size, ruining his pants entirely. He felt no need to cover up.

However, Peter looked down to notice that his skin had changed on his expanding thighs – a shiny dark blue. Darker than the blue that Thumpback’s skin was. It felt incredibly smooth to the touch, almost like rubber. Just like how the skin of a cetacean felt. Peter suddenly gasped, as he looked down at his feet again. Three vicious looking claws erupted from what was left of his toes, as spikes emerged from his calves, like a set of greaves.

“B-but Thumpback doesn’t have those on his calves!” Peter said.

“You are NOT Thumpback!” Frygus repeated, as Peter’s torso expanded expontentially. His shirt was completely ruined. Thankfully for him, his belt didn’t fall off. It seemed to grow along with his waist.

Peter’s head exploded – not literally, but figuratively, in size. His nose sunk into his head as a huge “U” shaped muzzle burst from his face. His eyes widened as they spread further apart. They were just like Thumpback’s head! He could feel his lower jaw expanding, small ridges forming Peter’s teeth sharpened, as his tongue exploded in size. But it was just as proportionate for a whale face, after all.

He opened up his mouth – it was huge! He really could bite the dragon in two if he wanted, but why? He had no reason to hurt Frygus, even if he did destroy his favourite Skylanders figure. He still felt a bit wary about this dragon, though.

Small rough ridges appeared along his back – as a blowhole emerged. His hair completely vanished, leaving him slick and smooth, as any cetacean should be. Peter doubled in size – growing more and more and more.

His arms bulked up massively with muscle, as his arms covered in that smooth skin. Peter’s lower arms bulked up, as did his hands. His hands and lower arms seemed to develop a pair of gauntlets – thick heavy gauntlets. Rather than small coral mounds, spikes grew from these gauntlets. Peter flexed his large fingers, as claws emerged out of the fingertips. A smile broke out amongst his huge face, as he felt something on his back, and his shoulders.

Those must have been spiked pauldrons, like what Thumpback wore. And what was that on his back? There was a small rattling noise below him. Peter checked the ground, as his sergal grin deepened even more. There it was, his anchor and chain. The chain had to have run through that thing on his back, just like what Thumpback had. Did keep it from getting lost, after all. He picked up the chain, throwing the anchor onto his right hand.

Just like a mace and flail. Peter didn’t know how tall he was; he had to have guessed at least ten or twelve feet. He towered over the ice and shadow dragon in front of him. He could not drop his sergal grin, even when he had an idea.

“Hail to the whale!” Peter shouted, swinging his anchor around. Frygus immediately ducked.

“Careful with that… you’ll want to save it for the Skylands.”

“Why wood ah want tae conquer th’ Skylands? An’ why do ah soond lahk a Scottish Heavy?” Peter said.

“Because, you’re not Thumpback… consider yourself Thumpback’s dark other. Ever wonder why you have spikes, or why your eyes are red? Or why you’re shadowy?” Frygus still had that sergal grin on his face.

Frygus gestured to something at his left with a wing. Peter looked over at the mirror, then at Frygus. It had to have been some kind of a trick. The reflection of Thumpback looked almost like it had some kind of a dark fire emanating from it, small shadowy flames growing from his darkened body. He remembered being a darker blue than Thumpback, not this dark. It seemed to completely darken his skin more and more, looking almost black.

“An’ wat in th’ fuck are ye daein’? Ah ain’ one for ‘at undead bullshit!”

“It’s not undead… consider it an awakening of your own shadow.” Frygus said. “I’m not undead, even when I use my undead stone. You can feel your own strength and power rising.”

Frygus still kept that shit-eating grin at him. Strange, the whale had a sense of déjà vu, like he had seen that grin before.

“Ah hate tae admit it… no… ah LOVE tae admit it!” The whale developed a sergal grin of his own.

“Now, let’s head off to the Skylands, my dark whale.” Frygus said as he turned tail and walked down the hall. “Master Malefor awaits.” Frygus lead him down the hall… presumably towards where his ‘dark master’ Malefor resided.

“After ye, buddy.” The dark whale said, as he ambled down the hall. Of course, he had other plans. He waited until he knew Frygus was out of earshot.

“First chance I get… I ditch that Malefor like that fake scottish accent… though I am intrigued by this ‘Frygus’, he looks a little familiar.” He kept his eyes on the dragon. “Wonder if I can get me a pair of those gauntlets… or meet the REAL Thumpback, Cynder, and Whirlwind.”