[Fanfiction] Academy Chronicles: The Genesis Saga (An "SSMB Heroes Academy" Spin-Off)

[NegaMix]

So, you want to hear another story, eh? One where the very fate of reality hangs in the balance?

...If not, then too bad. I'm telling it anyway.

Welcome to THE GENESIS SAGA, a new chapter set in the vast multiverse of the SSMB Heroes Academy Roleplays! This multi-part spin-off series tells the tale of four Skylanders and their quest to prevent space-time itself from being torn apart from an ever-growing threat... the Genesis Portals! Join Silver the Hedgehog, Marine the Raccoon and more as they journey across many different worlds, encountering allies and enemies both old and new along the way.

Will they succeed? ...Well, there's only one way to find out!

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(AUTHOR'S NOTE: The following series begins sometime after the events of Episode 52, of the currently-ongoing SSMB Heroes Academy: Resurgence PM Roleplay. As such, some characters and events from the RP that have yet to be adapted into a publicly-readable form, may be referenced publicly for the first time here. Precautions have been taken to avoid spoiling major details of these events and to keep the story relatively straightforward.)

PROLOGUE - AN UNEXPECTED DEPARTURE

PART 1:

Spoiler

"Uh-oh. This can't be good..."

Somewhere, in an unknown location, a lone figure seemed to be taken aback by an unusual and rather unsettling sight. Many strange purple portals had suddenly appeared in the vast empty regions of space, each one causing wildly different things to pass through them. Toys, weapons, plants, electronics. Even people and other living creatures...

The figure then started to move around his surrounding area in a panic, muttering to himself the whole time. "Okay, think! Those portals have to have an 'off-switch' of some kind. Maybe there's someone who can--" he thought aloud, before recalling something useful. "Wait, doesn't that psychic guy have the ability to do just that? ...Yeah. Yes, he does!"

Having figured out what - or rather, who - was necessary, the figure immediately dashed over to a curious device nearby. "The sooner he can fix this mess, the better. I mean, it's not like one form of dimensional travel is hard enough to manage..." he commented sarcastically, while also searching for the current location of this 'psychic guy' he required. And it wasn't long before he had that location:

Club Penguin. 

It may have appeared to be a simple, isolated island to the figure, but the truth could not be any more different. For this once-abandoned winter wonderland acted as the primary base of operations for the Multiversal Division of Skylanders - an ever-growing team of heroes hailing from many different realities, devoted to protecting their multiverse from the forces of evil.

Amongst this colourful cast of characters was Silver, a time-travelling hedgehog with psychic abilities. He too was looking for someone; a friendly scientist named Von Schlemmer, whom Silver needed to speak with about something. The hedgehog soon arrived at his friend's laboratory and knocked on the door, which was quickly followed by sounds of metal crashing from inside.

"Professor?" Silver called out, presuming it was Von Schlemmer causing the noise. "Is everything okay?"

Silver's presumptions were proven correct, as Von Schlemmer soon opened the door for him. The Professor seemed happy to see the hedgehog, at least. "Ah, Silver! Vat brings you here, mein friend?" he asked, to which Silver replied with a look of concern. "Well, I wanted to ask you something," Silver explained, "About the Genesis Portals..."

Judging by the look on the young hedgehog's face, Von Schlemmer already had a thought about what was troubling him. "...Oh. You are concerned zat ve may be ignoring zem?" the Professor inquired to Silver, who nodded in response. "Yeah, exactly. After that latest one showed up here, it reminded me of the danger they posses. And how all those other worlds get affected..."

"I understand, Silver," the Professor replied calmly, exiting the doorway to his lab and closing the door behind him. "Perhaps ve have been focusing too hard on saving ze multiverse one vay, und not ze other." He then started to walk down the pathway towards the nearby town, but not before telling Silver, "Ve should probably speak to Sonic about zis." Silver agreed, replying with a simple "Okay" before following Von Schlemmer along the path.

As the two left, though, a bush next to the lab began to rustle, until the head of a curious young raccoon popped up. That raccoon was Marine, the self-proclaimed 'Great Captain of the Seas', who had been secretly eavesdropping on Silver and the Professor. Though for what reason she did so in the first place was a total mystery... Still, she at least seemed curious enough to want to know more, as she soon tried to quietly follow Von Schlemmer and Silver.

Key word being 'tried'.

Though Marine did her best to try and remain hidden, each step she took in the snow was causing an audible *crunch*, forcing her to find different objects to hide herself behind every few seconds. To any potential onlookers, she probably looked insane! Marine continued to follow, making even more noise and eventually causing Silver and Von Schlemmer to stop in their tracks. They looked behind them, trying to figure out what was going on. Until...

"Yo, Silver!" a voice called from above, the faint sound of a jet engine alongside it. The voice came from Shard, a former Metal Sonic and a close ally to Silver. The metallic hog then flew down to greet his friend properly, as well as point something out to him. "Hey, you know that kid's been following you, right? The little troublemaker?" Shard told Silver, pointing towards a tree Marine was currently hiding behind.

Silver looked at the tree with annoyance. "Alright, Marine! We know you're there!" he called out, waiting to see if Marine would respond. And after a few seconds of silence, the raccoon finally gave her reply. "...Aw! But I was doing so well..." she said, insistent that her stealth skills weren't an issue. With her cover blown, Marine ran over to the three and explained herself. "Sorry, mates. I just wanted to know about those portal things you were talking about, honest!"

Hearing this, Silver could only shake his head. "Trust me, you really don't," he said to Marine rather bluntly. It was evident that he didn't want the young raccoon getting involved. But Marine wasn't so easily dismayed by Silver's words. "Oh, come on! It can't be any crazier than the things we've done 'ere!" she insisted.

While the psychic hedgehog did ponder about this for a moment, he ultimately still didn't feel comfortable with telling Marine about the Genesis Portals. Then Von Schlemmer chimed in. "I'm sure ve can vork somezing out later," he told Silver and Marine, "But for now, me und Silver should--!"

Before the Professor could finish speaking, however, a somewhat-familiar blue vortex suddenly appeared under the four Skylanders, catching all of them off-guard! In an instant, the group was practically swallowed by the vortex, which then vanished just as fast as it had surfaced. A nearby penguin soon waddled by, drawn in by the faint screams he'd heard seconds ago. But there was no-one there. No Skylanders, no other witnesses.

Just snow...

PART 2:

Spoiler

Elsewhere, the lone figure continued to monitor his device, as if he was waiting for something to happen. After a few seconds, however, the device began to activate, opening a portal just like the one that had swallowed the four Skylanders earlier. And as this portal opened, it quickly launched out those very same heroes, each of them crashing onto the floor in a rather sudden and ungraceful manner.

"Ugh... What just happened...?" asked a dazed Shard, slowly getting up along with Silver. As the two went over to help Marine and Von Schlemmer up, though, a voice unknown to the Skylanders was suddenly heard. "Oh, I can answer that!" the voice replied, coming from the figure hovering nearby. "What just happened was you getting brought to another dimension, courtesy of yours truly. Though I've gotta admit, I didn't expect to pick up so many of you..."

Von Sclemmer looked up to see the hovering figure in person; a somewhat small, oddly plastic-looking robot. "Und you are...?" he asked the figure, who then proceeded to hover towards the quartet of heroes to respond. "Oh, right. I probably should've started with that," he replied, seemingly chuckling as he did so. "My name's X-PO. That stands for 'Experimental Portal Operator'. And unless my data-banks are seriously messed up..." X-PO then pointed towards Silver and continued. "...You're Silver the Hedgehog. Right?"

"Uh, yeah. That's me," a confused Silver replied, before asking X-PO some questions of his own. "But... how do you know me? And what's going on here, anyway?!"

Luckily, X-PO was quick to respond. "Right, let's cut to the chase then! Simply put, I need your help to deal with those so-called Genesis Portals," he explained to Silver, as a projection suddenly appeared behind the group, showing the same portals X-PO had been watching earlier. "See, normally I'd have no problem opening and closing rifts between dimensions. But... well, not only do these things just not like to stay shut, they're now starting to become a real danger again. Like, 'end-of-all-reality' kind of danger!"

This revelation shook Silver to the core! The very issue he was beginning to worry about, was actually coming to fruition. In that moment, the poor hedgehog was at a loss for words...

It was then that Shard spoke up. "So that's why you dragged us all here?" he asked X-PO, who quickly replied, "Well, yes and no. It's why I 'dragged' Silver here, but you three..." He then glanced at Marine and the Professor before continuing. "...Not so much. That was just bad timing on my part." This caused Marine started to jump up and down in anger, exclaiming, "WHAT?! What's that supposed to mean?!" No doubt, she was feeling left out of whatever was going on here.

"It means, little miss 'public nuisance', that you shouldn't actually be here right now," X-PO bluntly told Marine, which only annoyed the raccoon even more. Seeing this, however, the robot came up with a suggestion. "...Buuut since you are all here, I guess you might be able to help out too," he said to the group. "I mean, there's bound to be some people out there who'd want to keep these portals open, for one crazy reason or another. You know, the kind that you Skylanders tend to stop on a daily basis."

This certainly caught the attention of Shard, Marine and Von Schlemmer, who each turned to Silver, wanting to hear what he had to say about all of this. The psychic hedgehog was still rather quiet, however, so Von Schlemmer walked over to him, hoping to comfort him.

"Mein friend, I am sure zis is a lot to take in all at once. Even I vas not expecting it to get zis bad so quickly!" the Professor said to Silver. "But do not zink of zis as us failing to stop zem. Vy, zis could be our greatest chance to finally stop ze Genesis Portals once und for all!"

"I'll help too!" Shard added, as he and Marine approached Silver. He gave Silver a thumbs-up and said, "No way am I gonna let ya deal with this alone! Someone's gotta watch your back out there, so count me in." Even Marine, despite not fully understanding what was going on, wanted to help in some way. "Yeah! We'll kick all those portals' butts together, mates!" she exclaimed enthusiastically, before quiety pondering to herself, "...Wait, do portals have butts to kick?"

Hearing his friends' determination to assist him, Silver turned to face them. Though he wasn't entirely comfortable with all of them sharing the responsibility of stopping the Genesis Portals, he also realised that the urgency of the situation may not leave them with much of a choice. After a brief sigh, Silver smiled and nodded to the others, acknowledging their offer to help, before asking X-PO one final question.

"...Alright, then. Where do we start?"

That's all for now! Updates will come in the near future, so stay tuned! And if anyone wishes to provide feedback on the story so far, then feel free to do so.

Also, shout-out to the SSMB Heroes Academy staff @Failinhearts @Ryannumber1gamer @Spin Attaxx @Crow the BOOLET for allowing this project to be made.

If this has caught your interest and you'd like to participate in the main roleplay itself, the PM-based RP is always open to join! Just contact any of the above staff members if you're interested.