(And now the official first chapter, introducing the rest of the cast.)
Chapter 1 - Interdimensional Introductions
When Spyro next woke, it was on a black circle in the large circular room, which was as red as the sphere had been, but also with gold lines randomly running about the ceiling, and there were sphere's of concentrated light to illuminate the room, though Spyro could not see anything resembling a window or door. The next thing he noticed was the nine other sleeping bodies on other black circles, ranging from normal animals to some creatures he had never seen before.
The first to catch Spyro's eye was another dragon, though unlike any he had ever seen. This dragon's scales were a calm blue, they also had visible ears and frills behind them. Also were some average horns above the frills, a pointed snout, long claws on each of their legs, a ridge on their back, which went all the way down to their curled tail, which seemed to be prehensile. Whoever this was, they were not from Spyro's world, and grew eager to chat with them.
In contrast, by the circle next to them, was a mere bat with black fur, though with a hint of silver, especially the white fur on the belly, which resembled a circle, and three waves (if they could be called that) going both up and down each. If Spyro hadn't the thought that this bat wasn't special, he have eaten it.
Next was equally simple-looking, as the figure was a red-furred fox with a white tail tip, yet Spyro could've sworn that the fox shimmered, as if it weren't quite there.
Then Spyro's eyes caught the bright-white horse by them, yet it was no horse, sporting a silver horn and gold feathered wings, as was the golden color of their mane and tail, though their hooves were silver. Spyro watched it for a moment, quite awed to see something so bright yet not blinding.
Going back to simplicy was the polar bear asleep by the horse; in fact, this polar bear seemed to be the most unremarkable creature there, with their white coat of fur and black nose and stubby tail.
Afterwards, Spyro saw the shadowy black wolf with a twinge of purple fur; it was like this wolf was part of darkness, and disappear from some completely if not illuminated.
Beside the wolf was a firebird .. a phoenix, of bright red and orange feathers, and a yellow beak and legs. Spyro was quite surprised to see what was considered a rare creature here, and was growing quite eager to see them wake up.
Next to the phoenix was a more humanoid bird, sporting blue feathers, yet with acid-green feathers on the wings and as a strip of green in the middle of their tail feathers. Their beak was grey, as were their arms and legs, aside from the feathers, and it was worth nothing their arms (which had four claws, one as a thumb) were not connected to their wings. A large satchel lay beside them, and Spyro wondered what it could possibly hold.
Last of all was the bright green snake curled up on the other circle beside Spyro, though this snake also had dark-green feathered wings.
All in all, Spyro was quite surprised by the array of creatures around him, which most were around his size, except for the wolf, bat, and fox, "Wow." He uttered quietly.
Soon, the other dragon started waking up, and proceeded to silently blink his emerald eyes from Spyro to the bat, and Spyro being a predator too, shook his head just as silently. Although, with the others waking up too, that included the bat, whom started things off with a very loud yelp, and began flapping his wings to have no one in biting distance of him.
Spyro blinked, "Ummm, hi ..."
"What in the world is going on?" Said the phoenix, her blue eyes looking around at everyone else.
"I .. am speechless." Said the female polar bear, whom had ice-blue eyes.
The wolf with red eyes nodded silently; he appeared to be observing the group.
The male fox, who had gray eyes, looked around, though not appearing all that surprised.
The humanoid bird, whom had blue eyes as well, looked around in awe, sitting up, "Amazing ..." He cawed slowly.
The horse was next to speak, his yellow eyes looking around, taking interest in the wolf for whatever reason, "Did not expect this when I woke up."
The winged serpent coiled himself upward, reaching Spyro's height at least, and looked at the others with acid-green eyes, "I believe I sssshall be the firssst with official greetingsss then, hello all of you."
The bat seemed to relax then, "Ummm, no one is going to eat me?" He squeaked out, earning nine shaking heads.
"Sounds like a good time to introduce ourselves, who wants to go first?" The other dragon replied casually.
"I will," the bat replied quickly, "I am Silon, sigh-lawn, and I'm obviously a bat. Umm, my home was a tree, and ..."
"Where are you from, like planet-wise? I've never heard of talking bats before." The fox interjected.
"Errm, I don't know .. some call it Earth I guess." Silon answered, landing on his little claws
"Funny, same here, but I'm sure I'd know if bats could talk." The polar bear replied.
"Maybe it's a different kind of Earth, I myself have heard of several." The fox said thoughtfully.
"Anywho .. I don't know what else to say. Hmmmm, oh, I can kinda do things with sound and stuff, like control it and hear better I guess." Silon replied, thinking.
"Huh .. well, I'm Arctura," said the polar bear, "and I lived in a cave really far north on .. my Earth? Yeah. Oh, I was a mother."
"Was?" Silon blinked.
Arctura let out a frosty sigh, "My kids .. they died, a freak snowstorm that literally came out a nowhere ... I couldn't get them to safety in time." She began obviously tearing up at the memory, though the tear seemed to turn to ice on her snout.
"Oh my dear," the phoenix gasped, "I too spent time as a mom, but my kids grew up a long time ago. I may look young, but that's phoenix things."
Arctura nodded at her, "I see. Go ahead."
"Okay, my name's Blarna, and I'm just your average everyday firebird, having lived in a volcano in a world full of different kinds of phoenixes .. ice, water, wind, earth, electricity, .. you know, and there's lots of mountains the many live around, including some cities. I myself though sometimes wonder if my fires are hotter than other fire phoenixes. Hmm, can't think of much else to say, who wants to go next?"
"I do," said the other bird eagerly, "I'm Sabatial, a garuda, and I'm my village's alchemist ..." Sabatial then blinked in surprise and shock, and soon went about searching for his satchel, sighing in relief as he found it, "Phew. I don't go anywhere without my satchel, it's got all kinds of ingredients and potions and stuff that I make, and is enchanted to be quite protected and such. Another thing is how similiar our worlds sound Blarna; mountains and elements and stuff."
The horse bobbed his head, "I've often wondered about such, even my .. ahem, world, has a thing with elements. I'm a light-attuned alicorn named Temmire. Not a lot of mountains though, mostly meadows and farms."
"Huh .. what is an alicorn?" The wolf spoke up.
"We're .. like horses, but with a horn and wings and magics in some forms." Temmire answered.
"Interesting. My home is also home to the most amazing community of owls, mostly a tree called Ga'Hoole. Me .. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the watcher and the warrior, I am the pack of one, I am Gyre, the shadow wolf." Said wolf announced with pride.
"Uhh, wow, but what do you mean?" Spyro spoke up, having been immersed into the conversation taking place.
Gyre smiled a wolfly grin as the shadows around him morphed into two transparent, shadowy clones of himself, "I can do this, controlling and sensing through them. They're not very sturdy, the more I make rather, but i can effectively create a pack from just my self."
"Amazing." Spyro nodded, I'm Spyro by the way, my world's .. umm, defender, and speaking of my world ... I don't really know what to call it, some say Dragon Realms, but that seems unfair to the cheetahs and everyone else, so I dunno. I'm a purple dragon, meaning I can use magic and multiple elements and stuff. I wasn't the first though," Spyro looked around, his heart somewhat sinking with a lack of Cynder in sight, "me and a .. dear friend, had fought the previous one, whom would've destroyed the world. We stopped him and saved everyone, ..." Spyro grew silent, thinking more and more about Cynder vanishing from him.
"What's wrong?" Arctura asked, tilting her head.
"Cynder, my friend, she should be here, but she was torn from me while we were coming to this thing." Spyro sighed, wings drooping.
"Oh .. I'm sorry to hear that." Arctura blinked, though a bit confused.
"Wait .. you came here? I wasss assssleep." The serpent spoke then, confused.
"Huh, same." Gyre nodded thoughtfully.
"Agreed." Said the other dragon, as did the others.
Spyro blinked, "None of you came to this thing? Me and Cynder spotted this, and flew here, and were then separated. At least that's all I remember last."
"Odd. Well, I'm Rainbow, and it's amazing to meet you all." Rainbow's scales started turning yellow with purple blotches, getting stares.
"So that's why you're named Rainbow, nice." Spyro blinked, getting a chuckle out of the pun of a name.
Rainbow laughed, "Actually .. no. Just like a real rainbow has seven colors, so do I." Even more surprising than his color-changing scales was that he then started quickly changing shape into six other kinds of dragons, then returning to his previous state.
Spyro and the rest watched in pure awe, taking note of the other forms; first was the brown and tan colored dragon, having a flat-topped snout and lots more muscles, then an aquatic blue with what could pass as luminous stripes scattered around, as well as gills on their neck, and a big-ended tail that looked to be strong enough to be a powerful weapon. Then was the red-orange dragon with large wings and long horns. Next was the pitch-black dragon that was a dark as Gyre, but also had silver scales on the undersides of his wings, appearing like a night sky. Then was the arctic-white and ice-blue form, with a whip-like tail and a spike-like ruff on their neck, and last of the seven was a sand-yellow and white dragon with a scorpion-barbed tail tip, and wavy crest going down the back.
"Oh my wow." Blarna gasped, ruffling her wings.
"Ta da!" Rainbow exclaimed, "You see, in my world, Pyrrhia, there are seven tribes of dragons ... Rainwings, Mudwings, Seawings, Skywings, Nightwings, Icewings, and Sandwings. I'm currently a Rainwing, but I can change to any of the other tribes at any time." He proceeded to change himself to the red-orange form-the Skywing.
"Amazing, but what makes each tribe different?" Spyro asked, tail waving about.
"Good question .. as you saw, Rainwings can change their scale color for camouflage or just cause emotions, and there's the venom-spitting fangs, oh, and prehensile tails. Skywings are some strong fire-breathers and pretty fast flyers, Mudwings are quite bulky and can hold their breath for a while alongside breathing fire. Seawings don't have any breaths, but their tails are strong and thanks to their gills, the ocean makes for a good home. Nightwings are good at hiding and can breath fire ... oh, and there's stories that Nightwings hatched under moonlight have powers, and for Sandwings, they can breath fire too, but the real danger is the poisonous tail tip. Lastly, the Icewings have their frostbreath, which is just as potent as fire." Rainbow proceeded to take a huge deep breath after that explanation.
"Sssplendid newsss. Well, I am Bimcal of the ssserpentine, and yesss, my hissssing isss an accent. There'ssss two kindsss of ssserpentine; winged like me, or with armsss. I can sssspit various kindsss of poisssonsss and give mysssself an acidic aura."
"Sounds cool." Sabatial nodded.
"What else can you tell us?" Blarna asked him.
"Oh, hmm, well I am the king of my kingdom .. which isss really peaceful, sssso I think I've done my job well." Bimcal replied thoughtfully.
"You're a king? I..." Rainbow began, dipping his head down.
"Oh pleassse, you don't need to treat me like one; we're not in my kingdom right now obviousssly nor are you of my ssspeciesss." Bimcal immediately protested with a shake of his head.
"Oh .. okay," Rainbow blinked, "we have monarchs back home too though, so habits."
"Same .. not that I've interacted with them, I try to keep my lives simple." Blarna nodded.
Sabatial shrugged, "Nope, just elders."
Temmire nodded at the garuda, "Less even for us, just community."
Silon spoke back up them, "Yeah .. family and stuff, nothing too special."
Gyre nodded, "I'm a lone wolf, ironically."
"Somewhat too." Arctura agreed.
And the fox whom had spoken even less than Silon nodded, "Same, I live alone now."
"Huh ... well, I guess the Guardians count as elders for the city." Spyro nodded thoughtfully.
"Well, thisss isss quite interesssting, but what'sss next?" Bimcal asked, looking around.
"Mister fox hasn't introduced himself yet." Rainbow reminded the group.
And so nine pairs of eyes turned onto the silent fox, whom chuckled, "Alright, I'll chat, I'm Gaxal. Sounds like a weird name for a mere fox, right? Well, I'm not a fox, at least not always."
"What do you mean?" Spyro asked, feeling a little wary.
"Like Rainbow, I'm a shapeshifter, I can take on just about any form I choose .. any form. Male or female." Gaxal replied casually.
"Wait, what? You can change your gender? How is that even possible?" Rainbow asked, astonished.
"Pretty easily, actually. At least for me; I wasn't born as either. My official species is Yeerk. We're a race of alien slugs with only one ability to our name ... the ability to crawl through your ear, and to your brain, where we can take control of you like a puppet." Gaxal explained.
Blarna shivered at the thought, "That just sounds .. wrong." And the others nodded in agreement.
"It would be, except it sucks to hell to be blind, deaf, mute, and just about everything else. Our only solace comes in the fact that we get those senses by connecting ourselves to a host's brain." Gaxal then replied, a little defensively.
"Wow, but one question, how does this make you a shapeshifter?" Sabatial asked, confused.
"Oh, because one day, I found a world with talking foxes with magical abilities, included a level of shapeshifting, and then I learned that somehow, I too could shapeshift, and have left behind my normal form forever." Gaxal answered, lifting his head up proudly.
"Wow, that does sound interesting." Gyre nodded.
Spyro agreed, "And I thought Rainbow's shapeshifting was cool." Rainbow himself only nodded as well in response.
"I can do some other things as well, mostly on the side of illusion things, like mimicry and invisibility and phantoms and stuff." Gaxal replied, "Well, enough about me ... where are we, and what are we going to do?"
Spyro blinked, and looked around at the unchanging room, "I .. do not know."
Rainbow gulped, still a Skywing, "Good question."
(And so we have the cast:
Spyro, everyone's(?) favorite purple dragon
Rainbow, the Pyrrhian shapeshifter (If you don't know Tui Sutherland's Wings of Fire series ... go read it, just cause.)
Blarna, the fire phoenix
Sabatial, the garuda alchemist
Temmire the light alicorn (not the MLP series, but my own design)
Bimcal, the serpentine king (Design is based off of Yugioh's Sinister Serpent, but the world is mine.)
Gyre, the shadow wolf (Usually a resident of the Guardians of Ga'Hoole world.)
Arctura of the Seekers-Earth (Erin Hunter's bear books.)
Silon the Silverwing bat (Kenneth Oppel's Silverwing series.)
Gaxal the shapeshifting Yeerk (From the Animorphs series, yet introduced to the Foxcraft trilogy Earth.)
... ... So, what do you all think? I've got big plans for this story, for there's a lot within the Echelon, more than anyone of the ten could guess. Oh, I do intend to experiment with first-person at times, in order to "get inside" the thoughts of my OC's better. And yeah, it's the cast that makes this a crossover.)