Ch. 4: Dark Spyro the Kid
It had been a week since Cynder had left, and Spyro was getting worried sick. That and he was actively having to suppress his darker side, which was trying to take control of him more and more often. That was worrying too. "Why did I ever leave Sparx and his family? I'm nine years old, for the Chronicler's sake! How many other nine-year-olds have to deal with this?"
Then his darker alter ego burst in on his thoughts. 'I can think of a few. And I care about Cynder as much as you, my brother, so why aren't you doing something about it?'
Spyro shook his head, as if trying to dislodge his other personality from his mind. "Because of you! I can't track down and fight whoever kidnapped Cynder if I'm constantly waging mental battles with you as well!" the young purple dragon cried out loud.
'Okay, so if I let you stay in control at all times and don't hassle you at all, we can go rescue Cynder?' His other personality asked. "Sure. Do we have a deal?" Spyro asked, extending a paw physically. The scales on that entire foreleg turned dark, navy blue for a second, and it shook, then returned to their normal bright hue of purple.
Spyro smiled, crouched like a cat about to pounce with his wings extended, and in one fluid motion leapt out of the cave and took flight.
Cynder, meanwhile, stumbled through a vast dreamscape of twisted, intangible memories inside her own mind. The ten-year-old dragoness thought it was kind if weird, but her theory that it was false and that she was still asleep in reality was confirmed when a memory of her form as an evil slave of Malefor's crossed her mind, and before she knew it she had transformed back into that form. Further imaginings transformed her into Spyro, Windstorm and even Malefor himself before she got the hang of it and returned to her normal form.
Then, on second thoughts, she returned to her 'evil slave of Malefor' shape. She had no idea what to expect here, and she may have been evil whilst she was in this form, but it was still far more powerful.
Then, Malefor's mountain lair appeared out of nowhere.
"Good, you're in my dreamscape," Rocky smiled as he strutted out through the entrance. "Rule Number One around here: What I say goes. Rule Number Two: No other rules apply. Not even physics. Here, I can do whatever I want to you, and you can't do a thing,"
Cynder wasn't stupid. And she enjoyed reading fantasy books. So she knew that mind/dreamscapes didn't work quite like that. "Correction: What either of us say goes. So I say that I'm a Golden Dragon of the Sun!"
Golden Dragons of the Sun were thought to be the most powerful race of dragon, or of anything, in history. Legend had it that they, together with their equally powerful opposites, the Black Dragons of something or other, Cynder couldn't be bothered remembering, had created the entire universe. Both breeds had power over every element, but Golden Dragons could harness the power of Light itself, just as Black Dragons could harness the power of Darkness.
This didn't mean one was good, the other evil. Most of the Black Dragons had been good, and there had been evil Golden Dragons, while they existed. A race of massive robots had appeared eleven thousand years ago, and wiped out every last one of both breeds, and their sub-breeds, Golden Dragons and Black Dragons. The sub-breeds could harness every element, and looked almost identical to the pure types, but had no power over Light or Darkness. The sub-breeds were created when the originals bred with regular dragons.
The purple dragons had actually first appeared not long after the disappearance of the two types, and it was thought that they were related to the former.
Sure enough, in expanding waves from the crown of her head, Cynder's scales turned pure gold. Her underbelly, wing membrane and the blade at the end of her tail turned to grey, and Cynder remembered hearing that they would change to the colour of the element that she was using. Just to test it out, she attempted to summon powers over Air. Sure enough, her blade, wing membrane and underbelly turned a brilliant white, tinged with blue.
"So you're going to play the ultimate dragon card? Well, you're not the only one with that card in their deck," Rocky retaliated, transforming into a Black Dragon of whatever it was. But unlike Cynder, he had made a few tweaks to his shape. The twin, scythe-like blades on his tail replicated and spread right along his back up to the lizard-like frills at the end of his head, which transformed into a massive array of spikes that went the whole way around the back of his head to the base of his newly lengthened, serpentine neck, and right back around the other side, three deep. Then the spikes began to rotate like one of those cutting machines Cynder had heard about from Spyro.
Colossal, leathery wings sprouted from Rocky's back and spread to an astonishing thirty-five feet as Rocky grew to the size of a dragon at least two thousand years old. Every single one of his claws grew to the size of swords, and Cynder realised she was going to have to transform herself if she were to defeat Rocky, regardless of that victory's implications. Because victory could not be worse than defeat in this circumstance.
The blade on Cynder's tail extended right along her body, turning her entire body into a massive, streamlined flow of sword blades, and razor-sharp edges spread along the ribs of her wings. She abandoned the Golden Dragon idea, instead, within a protective hollow in the centre of her silver, bladed chest, a bright ruby was embedded. Cynder's horns and the spurs on her wings transformed into a matching ruby, as did her claws. The razor-sharp ridges merged seamlessly from silver to ruby. Cynder's head was now the only part of her that wasn't all sharp edges. She reshaped her teeth into vicious fangs, and rimmed her whole head with horns. The dragoness decided to keep the gold around her face, she thought it looked great against the silver. But, so that it could not be used as a weakness, she also made sure that it was all armoured. Even her eyelids.
Cynder's reinforced golden eyelids slid open with a quiet 'snik'. She looked straight at Rocky's colossal black frame. "Let's dance, partner,"
Suddenly the landscape shaped itself into a massive stage. Hundreds of imagined dragon fans popped up around it, all cheering for the black dragon and waving banners that proclaimed various statements along the lines of 'Go Rocky' and 'Rocky is our dark hero!'
The stage burst into a multitude of lit-up panels, the type you would find in a karaoke club dance floor. "I didn't mean literally dance!" Cynder growled at Rocky.
"I know, I just wanted a crowd cheering me on,"
Cynder rolled her eyes, and, just to prove a point, temporarily reshaped her tail into a massive club and flattened several fans. "The only way you're winning this is in your dreams," she smiled, as an idea struck her, which, oddly, took physical form in a candle being lit over her head before disappearing. Sharpened spines popped into existence on her massive, clubbed tail.
Rocky smirked. "Good. Because that's exactly where we are,"
Spyro was flying over a rather barren, desolate area. He hadn't thought of taking the shortcut that Cynder had through the destruction the Destroyer had left in it's wake, so his route was significantly longer. He was currently passing over a desert-like area, and the heat was really starting to get to him. "Hey. A town. Maybe I should stop there for the night and recover," So the purple dragon tilted his wings and landed on the outskirts of town.
"Who are ya?" A strange, shark-like creature appeared out of the soil. Spyro could honestly say that he never expected to see anything like it.
"Spyro the Dragon. Do you have food and water?" the purple dragon replied.
"Huh, name rings a bell. Hey, ya're the guy that those two dragons have a bounty on. Name's Stonetooth, and, ya see, ah want that bounty. So if you surreenndeeer," The creature drew the word out for far longer than it was supposed to be, "Ah'll give you everything you need to survive for as long as you're in my hands. But if you don't, we do this the old-fashioned way,"
Spyro dimly registered what Stonetooth was saying. And he was about to accept the thing's terms, but then his darker side broke through. In an instant, the dragon turned navy blue and silver. "Do not worry, my brother," Dark Spyro said to him. "I shall handle this,"
Yeah, this was awesome, huh? Thanks for all the reviews, Rex and Jane, because you two are still the only people who have even commented. Come on, people! And if you're wondering why the chapters in Abandoned Dragons are shorter than my other chapters, it's because of the pace this story needs. Peace!
