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Growing up, Jet-Vac never got the opportunity to wear suits for formal occasions. He had a pretty traditional family, and they expected him to wear dresses because they all thought he was a girl. But when he grew up, he realised that he was actually a man. And he felt more comfortable wearing suits. He wore suits to pretty much all formal occasions he was invited to after he realised he was a man. But to date, he had never worn a suit on a date, because for a while he had stopped dating.
This is the story of the first time he wore a suit on a date.
“Oh, I hope I look alright,” he said, tying his tie with shaking hands. It was a nice tie, sky blue with the air element symbol printed on it. Eruptor had bought it for him for his birthday. He had worn it for a couple of occasions already, and he had already decided that it was his favourite tie.
“You look great Jet-Vac,” said Stealth Elf. Jet-Vac had wanted some assistance in helping him prepare for his date. And since Spyro was busy with Pop Fizz, and Eruptor was busy making dinner, she was left to help him. “And don’t worry about things going wrong. You’re dating Pop Fizz . Even if things go wrong, you guys will still love each other.”
She had a point. He had been venting to her all while he was getting ready, worrying about whether or not things would go wrong. He had always been a perfectionist, and just the slightest possibility that something might go wrong was enough to put him in a tizzy. But with her reassuring words, he was able to smile. “Thanks, Elf. And you’re right. Weirder things have happened to all of us, so what’s the worst that could happen on this date?”
Though Jet-Vac was usually cautious, unfortunately he was not cautious enough to not risk tempting fate.
They met Spyro and Pop Fizz by the river, where they were supposed to go on a romantic boat ride before having dinner. Spyro had rented out a gondola, and even though he didn’t own it he had named it The Gorgonzola. He thought the pun was clever. Stealth Elf did not.
“Hey Jet-Vac!” Said Spyro. He had on a straw hat and a small bow tie. “Looking good!” He had on a navy blue suit, which paired with his tie made him look very striking indeed. Pop Fizz, on the other hand, had merely pinned on a wonky black tie. He didn’t even bother brushing his hair. Earlier before he was getting ready, he had drunk an experimental potion which was supposed to turn him into something more traditionally handsome, but knocked him out cold for a couple of hours instead. In that time, Spyro had to get ready for him, and that was the best he could do. Regardless, it was the thought that counted.
“So, shall we head off on our date?” Asked Spyro. Everyone agreed, and got on the boat together.
“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie,” sang Spyro, badly, off-key, “that’s amore!”
Everyone in the boat had plugged their ears with their fingers and gave him unimpressed looks. “Not working?” They all shook their heads. “Fine.”
With Spyro no longer badly singing, Pop Fizz and Jet-Vac were finally allowed to have a conversation. All the while, Stealth Elf and Spyro helped to row the boat across the river. “Well, it certainly is a beautiful evening we have today,” said Jet-Vac. And he was absolutely right. The sun was setting, colouring the sky in a mixture of blues, oranges and pinks. All that reflected onto the surface of the water, and it was truly a sight for anyone to behold. The air was warm, the surroundings peaceful. A perfect setting for a romantic evening.
“Yeah, and the river looks great too,” said Pop Fizz, looking at his reflection in the water. It was distorted thanks to the ripples the gondola was making, and he found it amusing. “Look, sometimes you can even see hints at what might be living in the waters.” He pointed to a large shadow in the waters, several feet from where they were.
But then the shadow came closer to them, and it did so fairly quickly. “Uh, Pop Fizz?” Went Stealth Elf.
“That looks like a bad sign,” said Spyro. He and Stealth Elf immediately got to work trying to row the boat as far away from the shadow as possible. They had all been Skylanders for quite a while at that point. And among the Skylanders, there was this joke that once you were in the Skylanders for long enough, you began to develop a strange sort of sixth sense. One which made you able to sense whenever something was about to go wrong. For the most part, Spyro and Stealth Elf both thought that it was pseudoscience. But in that moment of time, they were more than willing to trust their intuition, and their intuition was telling them that something was wrong.
They were both wise to trust their intuitions too, because they were absolutely correct. Eventually, a bit of something scaly popped out of the river. And slowly, more and more of the creature revealed itself. Until finally, the small group in the gondola were staring at a gigantic, eel-like creature. It was yellow and spotted, with rows of huge, sharp teeth. And unfortunately for all of them, it looked hungry.
It also looked like a giant moray eel, come to think about it.
But anyways, because they were all Skylanders, and it really did look like the giant moray eel was about to eat them, they immediately got into action stations. Jet-Vac pulled out his weapon, which he had conveniently hidden under his extremely dapper jacket, and began blasting hot bursts of air at the beast. Pop Fizz pulled out several potions from his backpack, and started mixing them around. Once he got the combination he wanted, he chucked it at the beast with all his might. The potion exploded onto its skin in a burst of acidic glory, and in response the giant moray eel screeched in pain.
And while the two of them handled the fight from the boat, Spyro and Stealth Elf flew up to attack him together.
Spyro and Stealth Elf had been working on their maneuvers for weeks. Figuring out how to fight together as a unit. And finally, they had an opportunity to use those techniques they had been perfecting together for months. Spyro tossed her around in the air, where she pulled off tons of acrobatic flips. Distracting the giant moray eel long enough for her to slash at it with her dragonfang daggers. While she did that, Spyro would breath fire onto the beast. Burning it here and there. And before Stealth Elf could fall into the river below, he always made sure to catch her.
Eventually, the moray eel got hurt enough by their efforts that it decided to give up on trying to eat them. It splashed back down into the river, resulting in a huge wave of water pushing the gondola onto the river bank. Spyro and Stealth Elf flew down to check and see if Pop Fizz and Jet-Vac were okay. And fortunately, they were.
After that incident, they all decided that it would be best if they all headed off to have dinner. So they walked off to the cliff side. Which had a beautiful view of the setting sun, and was where they agreed to meet Eruptor later.
On the cliff side, Eruptor had finished setting the table. A foldable table covered with a red and white checkered pattern, along with two foldable chairs and one single candle in the middle for the aesthetic. But dinner was still being prepared on two portable gas stoves. So for the time being, Jet-Vac and Pop Fizz talked.
“Quite a day we had, huh?” Said Jet-Vac. In the corner of his eye, he could see Stealth Elf and Spyro trying to get an old cassette player to start working. Mainly because they found a mixtape labelled romantic music, so they wanted to play it to set the atmosphere for them. It wasn’t going according to plan, but Jet-Vac could appreciate them for trying.
“Yeah,” said Pop Fizz. “I’ll definitely remember this one for years.” He leaned in, and the two of them kissed.
Soon, Eruptor finally finished dinner, and he served his masterpiece proudly on two thick porcelain plates. Spaghetti, with all the ingredients homemade.
“Do keep in mind, I couldn’t find any tomatoes to make the sauce. So I had to use a last minute substitute,” he admitted.
“Oh, really, and what would that be?” Asked Pop Fizz, before he grabbed a couple of strands of spaghetti and stuffed them in his mouth. Jet-Vac has already nearly twirled the pasta up using his fork and popped it into his mouth before Eruptor could give them his warning.
“Oh, just some of Camo’s ghost peppers. They usually taste pretty alright for me, so I thought why not use them?”
Needless to say, the two of them needed lots of ice water to eat their spaghetti. And their date was certainly one to remember.