SKIP for "Prologue" and carry on reading. SHORT and Sweet Author's Note.

Originally done through a group contest in a shared account between others. WOULD have been a blatant re-post one-shot here, but split to be more finalized. A tidied up, less-raw teaser so I focus in other projects fully satisfied with this.

While at it's CORE a Spyro x Mega Man Crossover, it will have VERY few references to Mega Man (if at all any to universe). Hence, not to the Crossover Archive as I intended originally years back. Post-DotD, but here's in hoping it stands out exceptionally well when I get to it.

Cheers you charming lovelies.

Prologue: Crystal-Unclear

"Come on! This thing won't dig itself, now!"

Several metallic, thick drills whirred the air. Short and stout moles, strapped with leather and geared with protective padding of light bronze by the knees and arms, wobbled in place manning each drill. Orderly sequenced in between them were brown and green dragons - all double their size at least - burrowing the earth. Young and virile, to matured and mighty, with talons of calcium shoveling gravel and rock, dust and dirt to the skies.

A set of paws marched behind each and every one of them, belonging to a stern, sunset red-yellow dragon. One sunset yellow eye narrowed, the other behind the an emerald spectacle - matching the goggles the moles' wore.

Fangs bared, she decreed firmly, "Despite behind ahead of schedule," her voice matching her firm figure. Her paw gestured - pads facing the skies before her group: "but I expect greater returns! Gems are lucrative and promising, but the Guardians demand more!"

The dragoness threaded past the workers to pat the edge of the earth, "Of this glowing light!". A gaseous amethyst and snow-sparkled glow emitted from the crevice. The shine puffed above levels of platforms suspended of ropes, marble stairways weaving along the walls, and ladders connecting each level. Meticulous was the network as were the laboring dragons and moles at various platforms and ladders. The light faded to mix with sunlight beyond trees, with huts and mini camps spread more free and tranquil to the bustling quarry. Cheetahs in thin coats of leather shared bountiful baskets of produce with freshly hunted game of deer and sheep among workers. An unwavering aura of peace complemented the lush grass and undisturbed earth away from the crater.

A lime-green dragon between a group of cheetahs appeared to have listened intently. With glances impatient and inquisitive meeting his tired eyes, he excused himself from the banquet and arose outside to the large hole. He whistled at the edge for a roped platform rising for him to gently lower. His sharp eyes lowered, followed with a dismissive huff studying his platform and the scene. Impatient, he fluttered carefully at his own accord to the bottom.

"Miss Vulcana, how's our 'expedition'," he began, "coming along?" The flame dragoness simply turned on her heel. The spectacle flicked up, revealing a darkened splotch at her eye.

"As good as can be." she responded, brushing her chest scales with the knuckles of her talons. "All expected under the Guardians - results even more promising with the apprentice of fire."

"Well. Avalar's cheetahs are thankful from the efforts of our kin that year ago, but this is-"

"But we are working juuust fine." she insisted, flipping the spectacle over her eye once more. "We have been digging deeper; the rift's now becoming as lustrous as gems!" A scroll tossed into the earth dragon's forelegs, scrambling catch and then unfold. Time-tables, measurements, findings and reports and littered the parchment as he listened.

"As you can read, this is a discovery of a lifetime. - perhaps history as great as the purple dragon himself: Spyro. Who's to disagree?"

"Avalar, skeptics? And workers concerned of the operations perhaps leading to... something. Something bad?" he answered, not convinced. "I'm beginning to doubt this. I can't see how this compares to a marvel as the current purple dragon, either. Besides that, we may be overstaying our welcome with… whatever this rift might yield."

A tender rumble met their feet, the flame dragoness turned to bark briskly. "Hey, watch the power on that thing! We're talking!" A cough to clear her throat, and return to her fellow associate. "Well, I'll have you know once again, Shale, we're all wary." she confided with a shrug. Eliciting a raised brow from the earth dragon. She directed her gaze higher to a few busying moles knicking the wall with a pick axe. And passing it to a fellow dragon to clumsily hold in their teeth.

"But sitting back with questions isn't productive. Surely we're getting closer, the more that glow… glows. Surprisingly thin, if I may say so, but I can just taste it!" Her foreleg flung right over his neck, pulling the dumbfounded earth dragon close.

"But we've had that crisis with Male…ffffor. We don't need… another thing," Shale urged, worming his way from her hold, "to worry about." She only continued with a curve of her muzzle. "Did you even read the parchment?" she accused him. "And you're here asking me how I compare this to Spyro? The only straw I can grasp there are cases of symptoms akin to dark crystals. Fourteen cases - all mild and treatable. The least of concerns." she spoke, insulted. "The tenfolds the mineral gem energy we are acquiring along the way outweigh negatives of such drain - this rift just makes money, too! Besides that, blue gem bits in other rifts like these have grown, divining dragons with the ancestors. Why stop?"

Another tremor rocked the stone followed with a loud crack. Both dragons now stumbled. The flame apprentice turned, appalled. "H-Hey, continue that and the rising dust levels will cut your paycheck!" she sighed from the ruckus, "Anywho, there is little to worry. Give it a day or two, and we will kindly leave and compensate the cheetahs for this space…"

The ground shook again. Dust and bits of pebbles rolled with gawking dragons halting suddenly.

The shaking remained stronger, with the dragoness tossing her snout high, leaving it be. "Shale. I assure you, this is normal. Nor. Mal. Otherwise Boyzitbig's Division of Smithing, B.D.S., ehm, have ceased operations here back home - and evacuate those at rifts from overseas at Dante's Freezer to Tall Plains to even the remnants of the Shattered Vale. Unstable geologic activity would raise concerns, but there's hardly any."

A rumbling began, making Shale wobble and tumble on his side from her hold. It continued, heavier. A growl emitted from the dragoness, "For the last time, REFRAIN of explosives without explicit permission by officers as myself!"

The rumbling intensified. The hardened dirt around the purple rift chipped the rock with deltas of cracks. Workers slowly averted their attention with drills silencing and some whipping their heads to find wherever the quaking came from. Platforms and ladders rattled - the weaker supports and planks already growing unstable beneath some workers. Moles behind the drills near the rift stumbled to inch back.

The rift's glorious white and pink darkened to a hue of purple with sparks emitting violently from it. The earth dragon growled, shoving past the Vulcana to hover carefully fore a peek. From the hole and light, a dreadful glimpse caught his eye: a pitchfork of dark crystal to poke below.

"Vulcana, call off operations!" he shouted, flying opposite from the center. A heavy byzantine haze blew puff after puff, with dark crystals visibly jutting from the earth.

The flame apprentice froze mortified at the unfamiliar sight. And ordered a nearby wing dragon to a golden, complex. A heavy breath drew from him, and its blaring roared and fanned with winds. The few fog horns at the higher levels followed suit to billow the dark haze lightly.

"Emergency! Evacuate immediately!" she called from the top of her lungs.

The rumbling intensified, with patches of dark crystals multiplying like weeds piercing randomly from the floors and walls. The beams and ropes securing the quarry cut and rammed platforms and stairways to crack and even shatter. Panic followed with shrieks and yelling, wind dragons pulling back from horns as crystals sprouted at the floors too close. Within the chaos dragons flew or incurred wing damages to climb and push alongside the hurrying moles. Other dragons left on their own, or scooping moles and smaller brethren up from the hole. Above ground, a dusty veil of purple haze swept the scene.

Vulcana yelped lifted suddenly by Shale. He confronting the raining stone and planks to thread through. Unlike those unscathed, a small brick of stone slammed into the earth dragon's horns to bat him over the side of the crumbling stairway, dazed from the impact. He was higher to those utterly unconscious lower.

"Shale!" she shouted, slipping from his weakened hold. She propped the earth dragon over her back, dragging herself from the chipped stairway - with bits falling, one false step and she'd plummet to the newly formed spiny garden of dark crystals below. A sight worse than the drain of dark crystals along the walls mimicking the previously innocent gems mined, fading into the smoke, preying from below fast as she rasped forward.

"Grab on!" called a voice from above. A dangling of rungs wiggled right at her shoulder. The rescuer slid Shale off, and firmly shook him, "Climb! Move!" she ordered as he recovered his bearings, following right below.

The flame dragoness grew short on breath, lagging quickly behind Shale who appeared to shrink and slither up ahead. Each rung she took, the grip of crystals continued to drag her by the neck. The ladder trembled from her grip. One step more, and the rung broke - half the ladder splitting with a swing. Vulcana wailed with hind claws scraping for a better hold with her thud at hardened mud near the top.

Up top, the earth dragon poked his head down, seeing hardly the silhouette of the flame apprentice. "Vulcana! Hang tight, they're grabbing another for you!" Shale's voice rung urgent. His head disappeared in her view, with him looking at some cheetahs and moles scrambling, dragons rising with more survivors pulled.

And no ladder as he struggled to hold the rope beneath his claws. He cursed. "Hold tight, Vulcana. I'm pulling you!" he spoke quickly. His fangs gripped the rope. He expected a rough, agonizing pull back, yet the broken ladder rattled flat on the floor - torn. No trace of the dragon but rope hairs frayed and clawed rungs.

"Knights, abort rescue! Flee premises immediately!"

The plunge and air soaring past gave comfort in the dragoness' descent. Resisting her fate only numbed her further. A paw outstretched for the heavens, but no rescue. Just nearing black from her fatigued eyelids losing sight of the fading slivers of blue skies.

Despite her breaths waning, her eye forced open at something. Only to make out a piercing star growing larger. A wave of blue flashed in the purple with a peculiar comfort.

The purple dragon?…

This is the purple? How disappointing.

He betrayed his own kin?

Give me a reason to not maim him myself!

…

Purple… Purple! Where are you?… You're no longer the only one… This world, it faces greater threats. I cannot truly intervene in my current state… In these times, your strength, alone, cannot suffice… those with wills which match their prowess so legendary, it threatens the world I watch…So few are left to fight… Your destiny now weaves among others…

Get up… Spyro…!

"...ak… up… Spy…!"

A purple dragon slumped within a large nest. To his side, a topaz-yellow dragon's paws pressing and stirring him.

"Spyro… There's… The Guardians… now!" a pair of hazel eyes belonging to an unfamiliar dragoness fretted. "Avalar's been struck - dark crystals!"

Voila. Hope you enjoyed this little prologue. The main bulk, the next part to come. If you somehow saw the original oneshot of this, I've added plenty to make it more satisfying and lovely.

Loved it? You know the drill - complements and criticism all taken to heart. Don't be afraid to R&R. Till next time - two-part teaser to conclude very timely.