Voyagers Saga: The Sundered World

by Cydra

Outlawed in most of Nullspace, Matt Lynch's crew return to the planet of Avalar to regather their forces. But trouble is equally abundant on Avalar. Civil unrest is prominent and there are more than a few villains who are fanning the flames. It'll be a full-time task to keep everything from falling apart all around them.

4. Flora and Fauns

Voyagers Saga

The Sundered World

Chapter 4: Flora and Fauns

For many people, progress meetings are torture, no more so then for a mercenary. Poor Matt was sitting through one just now, half listening to the progress report on the repair and rebuild effort for Warfang.

Honestly, he didn't care much about Chip's company one way or the other. But since Chip hadn't officially resigned yet, he has to attend his business meetings, no matter what he'd rather be doing. He realized someone was talking to him. "Is the torture over?" he asked carefully.

Chip sighed and said, "I was just going over the growth of the industrial economy since the settling has started, though I suppose I could just move ahead to the long-term goals of our reconstruction project..."

Something in Matt snapped at that, "How many buildings have you and your little robot immigrants built?"

"Well, since you've asked so politely," said Chip before looking at his notes, "In addition to the buildings we've renovated, we've built 25 new houses for residences, 7 office buildings, a laboratory for R&D which has yet to be refurbished, an amusement park, and a satellite complex. The new power plant and transit system is still under development."

"Amusement park? Satellite station? These guys don't even have opposable thumbs. Does the word, 'overkill' ring a bell?" said Matt, twitching.

"The satellite station was for the incoming refugees. We'll be needing a satellite system so that we can keep an eye out for the NSC," said Chip, "And the amusement park was commission by a local entrepreneur."

"Who would want to make a bloody amusement park...wait, I think I know who," said Matt darkly.

"Who?" asked Chip.

"Moneybags," said Matt darkly.

...

Several Avalarian months ago...

"What? You expect me to pay that much for some cheap chocolate?!" snapped Matt.

"I assure you, this chocolate is hardly cheap," said the business suit and monocle-wearing bear, "This chocolate has been brought all the way from the distant rainforests of Glukoshia. You'll hardly find anything sweeter to nibble on."

"I've literally travelled this planet. There's no such place," said Matt, smugly.

"Well, the natives have a different name for it," said the bear, "But G. Auric Moneybags never deals out anything but the finest goods and the prices has to reflect their value in its entirety. Economics, you know."

"I'm not interested," snapped Matt. Usually this would have been considered an overreaction but Moneybags also apparently knew a good target and had followed Matt all over the city all day.

"Oh but surely, there must be something you're interested in," said Moneybags, "Have I showed you my exclusive Think-Gloves yet?"

"No, have I showed you my digestive tract yet?" said Matt, grinning evilly.

"Now good sir, there's hardly a reason to use violence," said Moneybags, "I am but a simple salesbear looking to make a sale. And if anyone here wants to buy something, I know it's you."

"GUARDS!" yelled Matt, rattling several windows. Even trapped as a dragon, Matt had an impressive yell.

"I can see that you're a hard dragon to bargain with so I'll just cut straight to the premium one-of-a-kind merchandise," said Moneybags, "Have you, perchance, heard of my Universal Communication Crystal? It allows you to speak to anyone anywhere in this dimension and the next."

"I SAID-wait what?" said Matt, stopping.

"Yessiree bob, my Universal Communication Crystal can access any communication device within the next three to four dimensions," said Moneybags, "The perfect item for the traveler whose business takes them far, far away from their home and friends."

"I dunno, it looks like a health crystal," said Matt carefully, peering at the crystal.

"Health crystal?! Are you accusing G. Authentic Moneybags of false advertisement?" said Moneybags, sounding deeply offended, "Well, if my business isn't considered creditable enough, perhaps I should offer it to someone else. I bid you adieu, sir."

"Gee, sorry my...wait a minute, you just changed your name," Matt said.

"Oh, I'm always willing to accept an apology," said Moneybags brightly, "Perhaps a demonstration is in order?" He tapped at the crystal and a holographic image projected out. It was staticy for a moment before focusing on an image of Moleyair. "Good evening good sir," said Moneybags, "I hope you don't mind the interruption. I just wanted to show my young friend how useful my little gizmo is."

"You, I'm still waiting for a refund on zose drill heads you sold us. Zey were made of-" began Moleyair before Moneybags hurriedly killed the connection

Matt gave Moneybags a suspicious look and said, "That was still on the same planet. I've yet to see proof it can cross other dimensions."

"Sorry, only one demon…" began Moneybags before his face was lightly singed by a burst of plasma flame from Matt. "I'm sensing hostility," he rasped.

"Show me that crystal actually works or you're out of here," growled Matt, his voice heavily indicating he didn't mean Moneybags would be walking away.

"Well, if you truly insist, I suppose I'll have to call one of my distant business associates to confirm it," said Moneybags before tapping the crystal and making another hologram flicker into place, eventually revealing a robotic head with a black helmet and purple eyes.

Matt went bug-eyed at that before yelling "YOU...!" he snapped, Swindle going "Uh oh" before Matt literally ate the crystal.

"Well, I'm glad we've managed to business today," said Moneybags.

"What are you talking about?" snapped Matt.

"Oh, just a simple store policy, 'you eat it, you buy it'," said Moneybags, "Now let's I believe the price on that crystal was, oh, 2000 gems."

Matt glared before saying, "I'm not done yet. That was just the starter," causing Moneybags to yelp

"Now sir, there's no reason to get, well, unreasonable..." started Moneybags.

"DIIIIE!" screamed Matt, luckily being stopped by the passing Ember and Flame.

...

"How could have he had contact with a Cybertronian?" asked Chip.

"Who cares? That guy was as much of a sneaky shyster as the other was!" snapped Matt. Chip gulped as Matt continued, "And you gave him the contract."

"Just for the record, he was the one doing the paying. From what I've heard, that amusement park has been doing quite a lot of business and he's almost finished paying us for the construction," said Chip.

"Have the Constructicons check the quality and go over it," said Matt sternly

"If you think I'd allow unsafe rides to be built, I would consider that a serious insult to our bond of trust," said Chip offended.

"Then you wouldn't mind if we went there personally to make sure," said Matt.

Chip nodded, "If it'll confirm...you're gonna try and eat Moneybags, aren't you?"

"Of course not, why would you ever think that?" said Matt, his fingers crossed behind his back.

Chip sighed, not trusting that at all before Matt said "Either take me along or I let Contrinus know exactly whose idea it was for her to be a pet parrot when we were in Berk."

"As I recall, that was actuall..." started Chip before Matt glared at him, "Oh, alright, fine. Just don't make a scene of yourself."

...

Elsewhere in Avalar, Ghoulwyrm was doing something that all evil overlords need to do: check their own defenses.

"This is going to end badly," he thought, thinking about his 'minions'. "I need to transmute more of those morons first chance I get," he muttered before wincing as he felt a twinge of nature magic. "Grr...stupid local rules of magic," growled Ghoulwyrm, "It's bad enough to have to worry about light without having to worry about stupid plants."

He paused as he sensed the sort of magic, causing his eyes to narrow, anti-undead spells. "Those nature mages might be a bigger hindrance than I thought," said Ghoulwyrm, "I need to reduce their power or their numbers, whichever is more easily accomplished."

He came out of his trance, turned and jumped back to see Vipra staring happily at him. "Is there something you need?" asked Ghoulwyrm in an annoyed tone.

"You look like you're melting," said Vipra carefully, causing Ghoulwyrm to back up a bit "Ooookay… We're switching you to decaf," he said.

Vipra immediately made gagging noises as if Ghoulwyrm had said she'd be eating something absolutely disgusting. "Decaf, we do not mention the drink that shall not be named. Yes that's right, Mr. Flibble," she said, talking to the air beside her before walking off, happily holding a conversation.

Ghoulwyrm tilted his head before saying, "Well...that explains why there's a movement to ban coffee."

Then he turned his attention back to more important matters, namely finding where the greatest concentration of nature mages on this world was. He pulled out waved a hand at the bookcase and the relevant book came flying into his hands. He opened it and flipped it a couple of pages. "Hmm...Fracture Forest, the largest forest that is untainted, home to several woodland creatures that are in tune with the magic there. Perfect." he muttered before realizing that an all-out attack would almost certainly fail. He'd need something that would be immune.

"Hmm, trying to kill it with fire and frost wouldn't work, they're bound to have defenses against that," said Ghoulwyrm, "Though if I poison it, it'll not weaken them, it'll taint the forest and make it harder for them to tap into pure nature power."

Vipra ran up at that. "I got an idea. We should ask the king of the potato people for help."

Ghoulwyrm's mouth just fell open before he said quietly, "What even..." shaking his head. 'Ok, she's definitely disqualified. She couldn't poison anything properly, except maybe with caffeine. Can plants be poisoned with caffeine?' thought Ghoulwyrm.

He suddenly remembered something before grinning, readying a summoning spell and casting it. There was a flash of light and Mantichrome appeared on the floor upside down. "What the- Oh, it's you," said Mantichrome annoyed as he scrambled to right himself up.

"Mantichrome, I command you to..." began Ghoulwyrm dramatically before Vipra squealed "A CAPPUCCINO MACHIUNE! YOU DO CARE!" tackling Mantichrome over.

"Get off of me! I'm not a cappuccino machine!" snapped Mantichrome.

"I want my latte!" yelled Vipra before picking up a battleaxe and chopping it into the middle of Mantichrome's back.

Ghoulwyrm yelped, tossing Vipra aside and asking "Mantichrome, speak to me, are you ok?"

"I have a medium-sized battleaxe lodged in my spinal network," said Mantichrome dryly, "That sort of thing can really put a crimp on your day." Ghoulwyrm sighed, pulling the axe out and tossing it away.

Mantichrome got up and said, "Now why did you drag me to- DIRKDIDDIRDIDIDDIPDIP!" His back sparked and his optics flashed different colors with the last part. Mantichrome shuddered before screaming "ORDER UP!" and a sealed Styrofoam cup shooting out into Vipra's waiting claws.

"Er, I wouldn't drink..." began Ghoulwyrm before Vipra swallowed the cup, contents and all.

"Mmm...yummy..." said Vipra drooling acid onto the floor, which seemed more virulent than usual.

Ghoulwyrm just pointed. "What are you?" he said in quiet shock before having his head temporarily dissolved when Vipra burped on him.

Ghoulwyrm's bare skull gave as much of an annoyed look as it could before saying, "Do you have any idea how long it takes the flesh to grow back?"

"That coffee tastes off," complained Vipra before walking out.

Ghoulwyrm turned towards Mantichrome and asked, "Are you coherent enough to take orders or will I have to employ some percussive maintenance?"

"Enif m'I," said Mantichrome before yelping.

Ghoulwyrm sighed before zapping with lightning. "That better?" he asked.

"I'm fine," said Mantichrome

"Now then, I've got a mission for you, one that I think you'll take delight in," said Ghoulwyrm.

"Yeah, I'll bet," said Mantichrome dryly, "What do you want me to do?"

"There's a certain forest on this planet that has very strong nature magic, which is aligned opposite of undead magic according to the local laws of magic. I want you to take your minions there and annihilate all growing things you find."

"I don't have minions anymore. Your curse smashed them," said Mantichrome darkly.

"Don't give me that. You've had more than enough time to put them back together. And I know it wasn't my curse that smashed them," said Ghoulwyrm.

"I can't get them here anyway. Someone made that summoning spell only to get me and I doubt they'll even get close with all the ships in orbit," snapped Mantichrome, aiming a punch as Ghoulwyrm wasn't looking and silently yelping as the curse stopped him.

"You're a computer virus, you know how to bypass security," said Ghoulwyrm, "And I know some of your robots are capable of digitizing as well. Now get as many as you can here, hijack or manufacture more if you have to. I want that forest uninhabitable."

"Fine, I'll just build them. I'll need to customize them to deal with dragons anyway. Where's the nearest technology?" said Mantichrome.

"The Atlantean colony has the best equipment," said Ghoulwyrm, "Heard they've been expanding since those construction robots showed up."

"No, I won't use Atlantean tech. It's usually booby trapped. Where are those construction bots though?" said Mantichrome.

"I believe they're some of those 'Transformers' and that they're working for Chip," said Ghoulwyrm casually.

"CHIIIIIIIIIIII-" roared Mantichrome before his head and back sparked and he froze in place, though a completely different voice came out of his mouth, "Oh, Yvonne, I have been lying to you for too long. The truth is I have been diagnosed with...split personality disorder."

Ghoulwyrm sighed before conjuring a mallet out of thin air and slamming Mantichrome over the head. "-IIIIP!" roared Mantichrome, apparently not noticing his stall.

"Yes, you think you can take his Constructobots or whatever they're called?" asked Ghoulwyrm.

"Cybertronians are not that simple to hack," growled Mantichrome, "Their sparks make them much more sapient than other robots. But I can summon my Monstercons if I have an open link to the Nullspace Network."

Mantichrome then said "Nothing happened...did it?" before Ghoulwyrm said "Nothing mmmph...nothing at all..." managing to stop himself from breaking out in laughter.

"Well, deforestation is one of my favorite pastimes," said Mantichrome, "I think I can handle the mission, assuming that the forest's inhabitants won't be too much of a bother."

"The forest is far from any dragon-inhabited landmasses and inhabited by simple creatures who have nothing more advanced than bows and arrows," said Ghoulwyrm, "Assuming you and your teams can handle the nature magic, they shouldn't be a problem."

"I'll be fine as long as..." said Mantichrome, coming to a stop before Ghoulwyrm said "Chip?"

Mantichrome managed to control his temper and continued, "As long as he and his friends don't show up. I'm presume that you can prevent them from coming."

"Not openly," said Ghoulwyrm, "But the forest has no direct contact with Warfang. Unless you allow one of the natives to slip away, they won't know the forest is in danger until it's too late."

"Fine, I'll have to be 'sloppy' then," said Mantichrome.

...

Sometime later, Chip had directed Matt to the entrance of Moneybags' amusement park. Matt looked up at the sign and said "Moneyland? You've gotta be kidding."

"Yes, there's been a lot of debate over the name," said Chip, "The Constructicons wanted to call it 'Six Lasers over Avalar' for some reason, but the name didn't fly. I think Moneybags is gonna host a contest over the park's new name."

"And I bet it'll be rigged," said Matt, shifting to dragon form and walking in.

As they passed through the gate, a blue laser swept over them. Matt jumped and asked, "What was that?"

"Oh, just the park security," said Chip.

Then a holographic screen appeared and displayed Chip's picture. "Chip Pelekai, park architect, welcome." Then it displayed Matt's picture, "Matthew Lynch, Shar-Khan mercenary..." Then the screen flashed a 'not allowed' sign over Matt's picture and said, "You are denied permission to enter Moneyland."

Matt shrugged, opened his mouth and blew the gates off their hinges. "Overridden," he snapped.

"Well, that'll bring the security droids," said Chip calmly.

Matt shrugged. "I smash droids all the time," he said before several recolored Imperial destroyer droids rolled into view. "Chip? You care to explain?" said Matt darkly as the droids took aim.

"Moneybags spared no expense and apparently amusement parks are a prime target for terrorists," said Chip.

Matt glared. "Terrorists? Here? Even the kids could eat a terrorist!" he snapped

"Probably, but Moneybags isn't the type to want his property damaged," said Chip.

"That's sad. I'm gonna flatten this place unless he appears in 60 seconds, dial fast," said Matt, shifting to hybrid form and starting to juggle a high density plasma orb

Chip sighed before activating his comm, "Moneybags, it's Chip. No, this isn't about another project. No, I'm not interested right now. You might have noticed the disturbance at the gate. Yeah, yeah, he says he'll flatten your place if you don't get here. I know, but he's not very rational. Oh, he means it and he can do it. Ok, I'll see you in a little bit, bye."

One of the droids said "Step aside, you are obscuring targeting."

Matt glared "If you move, Chip, I'll plasma you next."

Chip turned to Matt and said, "You know, it's that attitude of yours which makes me want to resign faster."

"And where will you go? The mind wipers?" said Matt cheerfully as the bear of the hour walked into view, glowering at Matt before yelping as Matt tossed the orb at him, the Ferris wheel behind him vanishing from the impact. "YOU! PREPARE TO BE A NEW PAIR OF HATS!" he snapped.

"I told you, there's just no reasoning with him sometimes," said Chip.

"Yes, yes, I see his temperament hasn't improved much," said Moneybags.

"You used me being stranded for a year from my friends to try and give me a dodgy data crystal, a short ranger!" Matt snapped angrily.

"Which you never paid for and swallowed I might add," said Moneybags, "I bet that didn't agree with your digestive system."

"I've eaten worse, meatloaf in the cafeteria," said Matt promptly before snapping, "What's your angle? Warfang needs an amusement park like I need roller skates."

"Oh, I think the children disagree with you on that," said Moneybags as a couple of young dragons went by, talking excitedly about the roller coaster they were just on.

Matt went a little wall eyed at that before glaring at Chip. "I thought the city was still under construction," he snapped.

"What? This was a quick side-project," said Chip, "Rides are relatively easy to construct compared to buildings."

Matt glared, picking up Chip and snarling "Can you guess what I and the council probably want you to concentrate on instead?"

"The park was already finished," said Chip, "Well, we'll have to rebuild the Ferris wheel, but that'll take about an hour or two."

"Besides, your friends certainly seem to enjoy my park," said Moneybags.

Matt grinned psychotically before roaring "FIX THE CITY FIRST OR I'LL FORCEFEED YOU TO THE SPIDERBOTS!"

"If you had paid the least bit of attention to my report, you'd know we've finished with the repairs and are now working on expansions," said Chip.

"I never listen to reports. You should have remembered that," said Matt promptly, causing Chip's optic to twitch.

Just then, Morph walked over, looking noticeably slimmer than usual. "Wow, did you go on that Space Dive yet?" asked Morph, "I lost so much mass on that ride. I wonder where it went?"

"I hate everything," muttered Matt darkly.

Morph shrugged and said, "Ok, I'm gonna get something to eat," before walking off.

Matt snorted. "Nobody with a fully functional brain will go anywhere near your rides, Moneybags. Didn't Zara say she'd charbroil you if she ever saw you inside the city again?" he said, referring with some happiness to the only time Zara had given him permission to attack someone.

"We're not within the city limits, haven't you noticed?" asked Moneybags.

Just then, Megan came up, all her hair stuck in a blown-up position. "Guys, you are not gonna believe how fast the Space Dive goes. Those Constructicons did a pretty good job, right, Gary? Gary?" A retching sound was heard and everyone looked to see Gary leaning over a trash can, making a big deposit.

Matt sighed. "I forgot, none of my crew are 100% sane," he said gloomily before snapping, "You two are supposed to be checking Spyro and Cynder's kid is ok."

"Mina's fine, we left her with Draco and Contrinus," said Megan, "They said they could look over her."

Matt glared before suddenly grinning. "Why not go get Mina, Draco and Contrinus? I'm sure they'll love this place to bits," he said, putting emphasis on the 'bits' part.

"Uh, sure, why not?" asked Megan.

Gary stood up and said weakly, "I'll go get them. I've had enough...momentum for one day."

"Revenge," said Matt happily to himself

Chip looked confused and said, "How does that constitute..." Then he glanced at Moneybags and said, "Oh, right."

Matt grinned, clapping his hands happily. "We gotta stay here to watch the results," he said, pleased with himself.

Just then, Matt's comm beeped and WARDEN's voice said, "Sir, can you and the officers report back to the ship please?"

"What's happen this time? Plus, it's not my ship, Neilson's taken it," Matt snapped.

"I think we both know how likely that is going to last," said WARDEN, "But the reason I'm calling is of a more personal nature. Can you come soon?"

Matt nodded. "As soon as I've finished watching celebrity demolition," said Matt.

Moneybags snapped, "That's enough! Golems, remove this..." Matt clicked his talons and the heads of the destroyer droids exploding. "...I mean give this gentleman a VIP pass," said Moneybags, not missing a beat.

Chip gave Matt an annoyed look and said, "You do realize which one of us is going to have to pay for the damages later, right?"

"I told you, no construction company, consider this punishment," said Matt cheerfully.

Chip's annoyed look intensified as he made a mental note to get revenge on Matt for this later.

Matt just laughed, walking round the corner and into an unfamiliar person. At first glance, this person would have been mistaken for a chestnut-haired human woman. That is if she were wearing a hat and you only saw the top half of her. Her horse-like ears and similarly equine lower body made a clear difference. She was wearing a green shirt that showed plenty of skin around her neck as well as a matching skirt. By the amount of dust on both, she had apparently been travelling some distance. "Matthew Lynch, I was hoping I would find either you or Spyro," she said, "I suppose I should not be that surprised you were easier to find."

Matt looked a little confused, "I'm sorry, have we met at all, miss..."

"Elora of Fracture Forest," she said, "I'm guessing you haven't heard of me then."

"No, I think I would have remembered if I learned that satyrs lived on Avalar," said Matt.

Elora gave an annoyed sigh and said, "I'm a faun, dork. Satyrs are part goat, I'm part horse."

"Calling me a dork while clearly looking for help is not a good start," said Matt coolly, turning to walk past her.

"Wait, my home and people are in danger," said Elora.

"Take a number. I have to save people every day," said Matt dryly.

"But the metal monsters are poisoning our home right now," said Elora.

"Call Superman then. I'm off the clock," said Matt sarcastically, walking past her.

"But you can't just-" started Elora before Matt shushed her and said, "The show's starting."

Draco, Contrinus, and Mina had flown down through the gate. "I thought this place was recently opened," said Contrinus, "Why would the gate be busted already?"

"Matt's probably been here," said Draco dryly.

Mina however looked like a kid who had been given the key to the candy store, already rushing in before Draco and Contrinus could stop her. "Oh, the abundant joy and energy of youth," said Moneybags before saying to Draco and Contrinus, "I trust you'll be paying for her fare, right?"

Draco backed up a bit and said, "Wait, a bear? Nobody said anything about be...be...be..."

Moneybags peered closely. "Are you ok, sir?" he asked before Draco sneezed through his ice mouth. A half-frozen Moneybags managed to say, "Are you feeling well?"

"He's allergic to bears unfortunately," said Contrinus before Draco let an electrifying sneeze.

Matt cheered as Moneybags was sent flying on a column of smoke. "Nice one, Draco. Wonder where Mina is..." he wondered before an explosion was heard. "She has her godfather's knack for demolition," he said happily.

"You're her godfather?" asked Elora dubiously.

"Oh yes, I mean, I already accepted responsibility for Smoldron and Sonya's kid when it hatches, but I'm such a good role model and friend that Spyro asked me to act for his own," said Matt, "It was a lovely ceremony. Shame about that curse though."

"Curse? The elders mentioned something about undead..." said Elora.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll fill you in later," said Matt, "The demolition's really about to get started now."

Elora looked confused before a huge sneeze was heard and a fireball blew up a popcorn stand. Matt laughed as Draco let out one big sneeze after another, each from a different mouth and destroying something. "Oh man, he's gonna demolish this place more spectacularly than I was gonna do," said Matt.

"Was this really necessary?" said Elora disapprovingly before Matt said "It belongs to Moneybags."

That made Elora reconsider. "Moneybags is a pretty well-known swindler," said Elora, "He once tricked us into buying some ineffective 'magic fertilizer'."

"I'm karma," said Matt happily as another explosion was heard, several cheers, if Matt was right, coming from the hatchlings in the park. "You know what, I'm in a good enough mood right now that I'll personally help with your problem," said Matt, "So what kind of polluting robots are you dealing with?"

"The robots came out of nowhere...attacked our grove..." moaned Elora sadly.

"Did they say why they were attacking?" asked Matt.

"No, though one of them did say something like 'death to squishies'," said Elora, "I think that one was the leader, it looked like something between a snake and a scorpion and they all had this symbol on them."

Matt leaned in to see the symbol carved on a small piece of wood before snarling, "Mantichrome."

"You know that monster?" asked Elora.

"We've met, the 'calling people squishies' things new though," said Matt.

"Do you think you can stop him?" asked Elora.

"Like it's nothing," said Matt confidently.

"What is nothing?" asked Chip as he walked up, causing both Matt and Elora to jump.

"Mantichrome's here," Matt finally said, recovering.

"I should have known," said Chip, "Well, I guess we'll be going to go stop him, right?"

"Yes," said Matt cheerfully.

"Ok, I'll round up the others," said Chip, "As soon as Draco's nose calms down."

...

Mina wasn't happy to be left behind. "Dad said you had to look after me for the day," she said sadly to Contrinus, Draco sneezing in the background.

"I know, sweetie. But these other people need our help," said Contrinus, "We'd take you along, but I know your parents wouldn't want us exposing you to danger."

"I'm tough enough," said Mina, a little confidently.

"But you don't have enough experience, especially with fighting robots," said Contrinus.

"I can learn," said Mina sullenly before trying something Morph had taught her, the puppy dog eyes expression

Contrinus winced and said, "Oh no, not fair, too cute...MATT! Tell Mina she's not allowed come!"

Matt, not really paying attention, called "Mina, tell Contrinus to live a little."

Mina gave Contrinus a smug grin and said, "You heard my godfather."

Contrinus glared at that, flapping over to Matt and landing on his shoulder. "Oh Matt..." he said sweetly before rapidly pecking on his head, yelling "IS ANYTHING IN THERE?!"

Matt grabbed Contrinus and threw him away, unfortunately into one of Draco's ice blast. Matt winced as Contrinus landed next to Draco who winced in sympathy, Contrinus looking furious under the ice.

"Oh, I can thaw her out," volunteered Mina before taking a deep breath. Matt and Draco yelped, diving for cover as Elora just leaned in curiously.

Mina may not be that old, but she had plenty of power. However, control of said power has not yet been mastered. This was confirmed as a blast of flame engulfed Contrinus, leaving her blackened. "Thank you, Mina," she rasped weakly.

"You think I have enough power?" asked Mina.

"Oh yes, plenty," said Contrinus "I'll go talk with your parents, but first..." She sprang up and flew at Matt before pummeling his head like a woodpecker.

Elora yelled "ENOUGH!" a tree sprouting below Matt and Contrinus, resulting in them suddenly being in some branches. "Oops." said Elora nervously before saying more confidently, "There's no time, every second counts. Those machines were knocking at the elder tree's gate when I used the scrying spell to find the nearest hero of Avalar."

"I'm guessing your spell isn't picky," said Chip dryly.

"Shut up, Chip. You're coming too," snapped Matt as Elora began to cast something.

"Fine, fine, we'll just get a ship and-" started Chip before there was a sudden flash of light and everyone had vanished.

...

Mantichrome laughed as the Monstercons came up. "Oh, give me some more good news," he said happily.

"Well, we found these friendly pixies," said Whipsting, holding up a jar with several of the things inside, "They don't even try to escape. They just flutter around and say 'I love you' and other junk."

"Wonderful, toss them with the others. Next!" he called, Whipsting backing off, muttering, "The boss happy is freaking creepy."

"Ok, what else have we got?" asked Mantichrome.

Roughshell held up a small wood troll and said, "I found this living puppet."

"I'm not a puppet!" yelled the wood troll.

"Then what are you?" asked Deathgrip dryly.

"Uh, a magic leprechaun that gives you lot of good luck if you treat it well?" said the wood troll only for his twig-like nose to grow substantially longer.

"I don't think so," sneered Mantichrome, a flamethrower unfolding from a servo.

"Wait, wait, I tap dance too!" said the wood troll desperately, his nose growing even longer.

Mantichrome shrugged before firing. "KEEP SMASHING AWAY!" he yelled to his minions.

"Sir, isn't there some higher objective?" asked Deathgrip, "Some prize we're supposed to be seizing or something?"

"No, just deforestation, the job itself is reward enough," said Mantichrome, "Now find me a body of water that I can poison."

"That may be hard. Much of the groundwater's sourced from their base," said Deathgrip professionally.

"Roughshell, you're in charge of digging to those waters," said Mantichrome, "If you can't reach any, feel free to break the roots apart."

A drone ran up. "Master, scanners have detected a signal matching that of the hated one."

"Which hated one?" growled Mantichrome.

"Er, I think it's the one known as 'Lynch'," said the drone nervously.

"LYYYYYYYYYYYNNNNN-" roared Mantichrome before freezing as his head and back sparked.

A female voice came out of his mouth, "Jeffery, does this mean your quadruplets are who I think they are?"

A male voice said, "That's right. They're not my quadruplets, they're all my different personalities."

Roughshell rolled his optic and got ready to hit Mantichrome's head only for Deathgrip to say, "Not yet, I missed this episode."

...

There was a sudden flash of light before the group appeared again. "-head on to...oh," finished Chip just before Matt found that his altitude had not been altered and there was nothing within reach to hang on to.

"I hate you," he glared as he sank below view.

Mina looked around and said, "Wow, this is Fracture Forest? I thought it'd be more...fractured."

Matt pulled himself up and said "Look over the edge, my dear."

Mina walked over to the edge and looked down. The forest was subdivided into a lot more islands than she had seen any place on Avalar. There were some islets that contained nothing more than a bush or a tree. There were even a few trees free floating with roots connecting to more trees.

"What was that about no fractures?" said Matt, panting as he finally pulled himself up.

"Was it always this jigsaw-like?" asked Draco.

"We had floating plants before, smaller islands in fact," said Elora, "Whatever forces that fragmented the rest of the world made no exception here."

Nina sighed, looking around. "Wow," she said, looking around.

Matt nodded, "Ok, Elora, lead the way so we can get to smashing."

"You can fly, can't you?" asked Elora as she was tugging at some hanging vines.

Matt glared, grabbing Chip as he shapeshifted, the group taking off.

Elora was swinging and jumping between trees with practiced ease. "We ought to meet with the elders," she said, "They were safe the last time I checked, but I need to make sure nothing happened since then."

Draco flew close to Matt's head at that. "I don't think we should be here. Mina's only done some training. She could get hurt," he whispered.

"What better training then out in the field?" asked Matt.

"She's gonna get killed, you idiot!" snapped Draco angrily.

"With her parentage and us to protect her? There's nothing to worry about," said Matt dismissively.

Draco glared before peeling off, now next to Mina. "Kid, if we get into trouble, get behind me. The sort of people we go against are pieces of work," he said.

"But won't we have the field advantage?" asked Mina.

"These guys make their own..." began Draco before a missile hit him.

The group looked around to see several locust-like robots with the eye symbol flying about. A larger one with a purple symbol said, "Looks like we've got some invasive species. Well we were here first so buzz off."

Matt glared and spat a plasma ball at them, the group of bots scattering while firing. "GET EM!" yelled Matt. However, getting one particular bug in a swarm is rather difficult, even if they were larger robots. The laser blasts made that even more complicated.

Chip yelped as Matt's hand holding him was shot, dropping him unceremoniously onto Mina. "Oof...wow, you're heavy," she complained, trying to dodge several blasts

"I'm actually quite light," said Chip, "Your wing muscles haven't developed enough quite yet."

"I'm not that old...yet," glared Mina before she cried out as a laser burst hit her in the back.

"Which also means your hide is tenderer," said Chip sadly before they both started dropping. Two of the 'buzzbots' grabbed them before they fell, Chip hearing Matt yelling after them as they vanished into the treeline.

...

Needless to say, Draco was not pleased in the least. "I can't believe you'd allow something that reckless!" snapped Draco, "Ok, maybe reckless is something I can expect, but never irresponsible." Matt wasn't listening as they flew through the tree's following Elora towards a clearing where a huge tree stood.

"I mean, your first concern should have been her safety like any good godfather's ought to be. I would have expected better caretaking from Morph than... Hey! Pay attention when you're getting a lecture you actually deserve!" yelled Draco. Matt glared before looking shocked as Draco punched him. "I said pay attention!" the experiment snapped.

Matt glared at Draco and said, "You dare-"

He was cut off by Elora whistling loudly. "As much as I'd like to dress down Matt too, we're almost at the elders' and I'd rather your first impression not be a poor one."

Matt snarled, "This isn't over." before he shifted to hybrid in midair and aimed to land in the courtyard.

It was hard to say whether the building in front of them was a tower or a giant mushroom, but it was probably safe to say it was the latter that had been built into the former. Elora approached the large grate at the front and called, "Father, I brought warriors from Warfang!"

A few seconds later, the gate opened and a tall, muscular centaur stepped out. "I knew you would not let us down, Elora," he said. The centaur stopped before saying sternly, "That's not the dragons of legend."

Matt deadpanned before saying, "Wow. Feeling the love."

"Yes, but he should be just as good," said Elora, "He's a powerful warrior and he's faced the menace that's plaguing our forest before."

The centaur looked at Matt and Draco before glaring at the latter. "One of the hosts of Malefor's generals...and a person who is clearly mad."

"That was hardly voluntary," said Draco.

"I'm not mad. I'm just mentally dented," said Matt sadly as the centaur said "I suppose we must make do. I hope you are bringing friends."

"Only if we need cleanup," said Matt swaggeringly.

"Cocky, you'll be dead in minutes," said the centaur grimly, causing Matt's eye to twitch.

Just then, the gate opened more and more centaurs came out. "Have the warriors arrived yet?" asked one.

"Perhaps, though I'm not sure they'll be enough," said Elora's father.

Draco however was the first to voice the 'elephant in the room'. "Hey, shouldn't there be more fawns around?" he asked.

"They stay inside. Would be a good idea to allow our young ones to be harmed," said Elora's father.

"Er, I'm glad you care so much for your adopted kindred," said Draco.

"Adopted?" replied Elora's father in confusion.

"Well, yeah, I mean, you care a lot for Elora even though she's not really your daughter," said Draco.

"Are you suggesting that Elora is not my blood daughter?" demanded Elora's father angrily.

"Well how could she? I mean you two are entirely different species," said Draco desperately.

The centaurs stared for a second before they all started laughing at that, Matt asking, "Do you want a little mustard on that foot in your mouth?"

One of the centaurs wiped the tears from his eyes and said, "That joke never gets old."

Elora's father had also gotten over his dark mood, "I see you're new to this part of the world. Otherwise you'd know the fauns are our offspring."

"What?!" said every one of the gang.

"We have a different lifecycle than most species," explained Elora, "You see, first we are born with only two legs and mature to the point where we're like the adults of other races. But then we go through a second stage where we grow our wisdom feet. In fact, I'm almost finished." She lifted up her shirt to reveal her stomach and the small hairless horse legs that were curled up on her sides.

Matt stared for a minute before saying, "Ok...I'll take your word for it.

"Er, how long until you're fully...four-legged?" asked Contrinus faintly.

Elora held up her tail and said, "You see the white tip? Faun tails are completely white when they're born and they start changing to match our other hair when we're going through the second stage. I have about two more weeks before I'll be fully developed."

"Lovely...let's get to why I was called?" said Matt distantly, trying to unsee the image of tiny legs.

"Indeed," said Elora's father, turning serious again, "As you've been told, our forest is being assaulted by those metal monstrosities. They pay no heed to pleas for mercy or surrender. They don't slaughter, but they do capture who they can and take them back to their lair. I shudder to think what they do with them there."

"Sounds like Manti's M.O. He loves to gloat to an audience," said Matt casually, happy to be on a subject he was good with.

"But how do we stop him?" asked a centaur, "They cut through our wood magic with their sharp claws and blades."

"That's because they probably have chainsaws for claws. You want blunt force like boulders, or a nice pit full of water, or acid. Whichever works," said Matt, sternly, "These guys are all machines, machines he's probably made to deforest this entire area..."

"You do realize this is the Fractured Forest, right?" asked Elora's father, "Such resources are not that readily available.

"Ok, you got anything good at crushing stuff?" asked Matt, a little testily.

"Will these work?" asked one centaur, holding a large sledgehammer.

Matt looked out. "I can see half a dozen ways to squash droids in the treeline alone. Hell, some even use the trees," said Matt calmly

The centaurs looked doubtful at that. "I'm not sure what good it would to stop these droids if it meant wrecking the forest," said Elora's father.

"What's the alternative?" said Matt grimly.

There was a grim silence before one of the centaurs said, "We're not quite what you would call agile. I mean, we've been able to get through the forest before, but even before the fragmenting, we've never been able to reach the treeline."

"I mean where the tree's begin!" snapped Matt, climbing up the wall to point, turning as he spoke and ducking as a laser bolt parted his hair.

The centaurs looked more nervous at that. "They're not used to leaving the forest," explained Elora, "We're more likely to wander outside while we're still fauns, but the eldest almost always prefer to remain in the forest. In fact, I'm one of the very few who has gone as far as Warfang in the last two generations, let alone leave the forest."

Matt nodded. "You forgot to mention the SNIPERS!" he snapped, patting the smoke on his head desperately.

"You didn't notice them?" asked Elora, "I thought dragons were supposed to have sharp eyesight."

"Half dragon!" Matt snapped at that.

"Actually, you're one-third dragon," said Contrinus.

"Yeah, if his eyesight was that sharp, he wouldn't still be wearing glasses," said Draco.

Matt glared at that before a plasma blast shot through the wall and sent him flying into the compound, more shots shooting out. "Oh, what timing, we're just in time for the hourly raid," said Draco dryly.

"How did you know they raid every hour?" asked Elora.

"Uh...lucky guess," said Draco.

Several whirring claws bit through the wood of the wall at that, tearing a chunk out to let several creatures in. Apparently Mantichrome was working on psychological warfare as he had built these robots to resemble centaurs. They were quite a bit more lifelike than his usual work.

Draco's first and logical response was to spit some ice at the first one, its arm firing laser bolts at the panicking population. Matt turned his hands into claws and said, "Ok, let's start recycling these tin cans."

The bots turned to face Matt at that, firing rapidly only for the lasers to bounce or be absorbed by an erected plasma shield before he descended on them, claws and all.

However, Elora called, "Wait, don't destroy them!"

"Why not?" asked Matt.

"They're still our people!" called Elora.

"Wait, what?" Matt said before being knocked back by several blasts, a few of the centaur bots now firing nets.

Contrinus was a bit quicker to catch on. "Draco, we need to disable them, but not permanently," she called.

Draco nodded, sending a blast of lightning at the bots, causing them to judder and fail into a sort of standby mode. Of course, it took a little bit longer to disable the bots, which gave the functional ones enough time to start dragging out their captives, including Matt.

It was ten kinds of unfortunate that they chose to grab Matt instead, who was still annoyed over the laser and plasma blasts. "Stop, but don't smash, right," said Matt before he snapped off the arms of the ones that tried to grab them. Elora yelped at that, in horror before Matt said, "That's why God invented welding torches," before he hit the surprised centaur bot with his own arm.

The centaur bots appeared to retain some self-preservation as they quickly backed away from Matt.

One bot however looked a bit lost before Draco managed to freeze its legs down. "Is this what they mostly send or can we expect larger, more kill-friendly ones?" asked Draco.

A roar from the treeline caused Matt to glare. "Never, ever say that," he said darkly.

Several trees were knocked aside as a large mecha bulldozed/hacked its way through. This robot looked like a cross between a giant crab and a tree leveler with treaded legs, chainsaw pincers, and several exhaust pipes along its back belching out black smoke.

"Oh, come on!" snapped Matt, looking up at it. The leveler crab focused its optics on Matt and came at him, its claws open to snap/chop him in half. "I wasn't serious," moaned Matt before the crab snatched him.

Fortunately, Matt had switched to his anthro form and his scales were just a bit too tough to be sawed through. Though that didn't stop the mecha from bashing Matt against everything. The centaurs winced in sympathy before Matt was thrown over their heads into a building

The crab snapped its pincers before it started rumbling towards the others. Draco and Contrinus took off as the crab headed for the centaurs, grabbing one every so often and putting them in a hatch on its back, while also smashing all and sundry

"Ok, any ideas about how we defeat that eco-nightmare?" asked Contrinus.

"Let's see, how did we beat Deforestator?" asked Draco.

"Wait, wasn't he captured before you were created?" asked Contrinus.

"I mean his viral clone," said Draco.

The crab finally seemed to notice them at that, turning and making a futile snatch at them. "Draco, a plan would be good any time now," said Contrinus.

"Hey, it's not very easy under these conditions," said Draco, "I wish Chip were here. He'd know how to handle that thing. Or at least he'd be able to short it out."

The crab paused at that, a distant 'CHIIIIIIIII-' heard in the distance.

The mech came to a stop at that, apparently in-between instructions. "Huh, I wonder what I just did," said Draco.

...

Mina and Chip watched with mild interest as Mantichrome stood in a frozen pose, some kind of soap opera coming out his open mouth. "Jeffery, I have a confession to make too," said a female voice, "I am not who I seem I am."

"Do you have split personality disorder too?" asked a male voice.

"No, it's not my mind, it's my body. You see, I'm a shapeshifter and this isn't my true form."

Mina looked at Chip at that. "Does this happen often?" she asked curiously.

"This is the first I've seen of it," said Chip, "I think he has some processor damage." On cue, a minion waddled up and slapped the back of Mantichrome's head, causing him to finish his scream. "Hmm, this could of use to us," said Chip, "Or at the very least good entertainment."

Mantichrome turned to glare at them both. "Oh, there will be entertainment...for me," he snapped.

"I seem to recall that you have rather poor taste when it comes to entertainment," said Chip.

"Indeed, but this should be fun for me," said Mantichrome, a needle folding out of one of his arms before he fired it at Mina. The skin of a more mature dragon would have made the needle bounce off. However, Mina's tender young skin soaked up the needle's contents like nobody's business.

Chip pulled the needle out as Mina cried in pain as Mantichrome settled in front of them. "Ok, little annoyance, why are you with this tin can?" he asked

"Because he's one of my friends," said Mina.

"Hmm...good enough...and where are you from? You seem familiar," he asked.

"I'm from Warfang," said Mina.

Chip turned in shock. "No...ix-nay..." he said desperately as Mina, in a new almost-sleepy voice began to go into detail.

"My parents are Spyro and Cynder. People have been saying since I was born, which is about a month or so ago, that I'd inherit great power. I supposed that's why Ghoulwyrm laid that curse on me," said Mina.

"Mina, don't say that," winced Chip before Mantichrome laughed "Oh, this is good. It even works on dragons. Mina, punch Chip."

"She doesn't have fists, you-" started Chip before he was struck hard enough to fall onto his side.

"Very good, least the mental part's finished. Leafstripper, I think you can let her out now. She won't cause any trouble," said Mantichrome evilly.

"I still have a chipped gasket from the last time you told me it was alright to let something out," said Leafstripper.

"It's fine this time. Mina, my dear, you will obey every word I say; blow Leafstripper's head off," said Mantichrome.

"Not again," moaned Leafstripper before he lost his head yet again.

Chip however was horrified, "Mina, what are you doing? That guy's as evil as they come."

"Mina doesn't care anymore," said Mantichrome gleefully, "She's nothing but an obedient drone now. And soon her body will reflect that."

"What was in that shot?" snapped Chip.

"Oh, something I stole from the NSC, some rampant nanites with a little touch from me," laughed Mantichrome.

"You really are heartlessly evil," said Chip darkly.

"Thank you, I do think this is my finest work yet," said Mantichrome, "But flattery's not going to save your life." Mantichrome grinned at that before pausing. "Actually, I think I'll let you watch. You won't wanna miss any of this," he laughed cruelly.

"When Matt and the others get here, they're gonna reduce you to scrap," said Chip.

"I am not that easily destroyed," said Mantichrome, "But that does remind me, I have a battle to finish. Now then, where was...I?" He paused as he saw nothing but feeds of captured centaurs...and Matt jumping up and down on the head of his leveler crab. "I hate you guys," he said dully.

"Don't you hate it when you turn your attention away from your video game for a minute and you come back and find out you've been killed while you were gone?" asked Chip tauntingly.

Mantichrome twitched at that before yelling "CHIIIII!" twitching in place before the radio came back.

"Yvonne, I don't care what you really are, I still love you," said Jeffery's voice, "But out of curiosity, what does your true form look like?"

"Oh, you don't want to see it," said Yvonne, "It's far too repulsive."

"Oh, come on, how bad could it be?" asked Jeffery's voice. Then there was a squishing and melting sound, accompanied by something that sounded like a cross between gargling and belching. "Holy cow, that's what you really look like? Er, not that it's a bad thing."

...

Matt tossed the head of the crab bot aside. "And that's how we do things. I get hit alot and the others use me as a distraction!" he said, snapping the last part at the sheepish-looking Draco.

"Well, it all worked out in the end, right?" said Draco.

"You used me as a club!" snapped Matt, Elora wincing and wandering over to Contrinus who just looked embarrassed.

"Is it always like this between those two?" asked Elora.

"We usually have more guys to balance it out," said Contrinus.

The chief however had just gave a pained cry. The others turned to look and Elora soon had the same wounded expression. The chief was standing over one of the centaur bots that was quite clearly a female. "Mom?" Elora said quietly, the bot trying to get its gun arm free.

Matt walked over and used his dragon strength to remove its gun arm at the shoulder. "We'll put them all back together again once we've figured out how to cure them," said Matt, though his tone didn't sound to convincing. If anything, it sounded more indifferent.

Draco glared at that. "He's losing it," he muttered to Contrinus.

"And not the usual giggling before exploding kind," muttered Contrinus.

"Yeah, I think we need to keep an eye on him," muttered Draco carefully.

"Unless he provokes the centaurs into killing him first," said Contrinus, noticing the other centaurs giving Matt dark looks.

Matt, for his part, was returning the glares with interest, before Elora said quietly "I chose the wrong person, didn't I?"

"He's normally not this bad," said Contrinus, "He just needs someone to give the right second opinions sometimes."

"We both know," began Draco only for Contrinus to plug his mouth.

"Maybe I ought to have a look as to how your people have been, er, roboticized so I can start figuring out how to cure them," said Contrinus.

"It's a waste of time," said Matt darkly, causing a few centaurs to start muttering.

"Now you don't know that until you've tried," said Contrinus before she started looking over Elora's mother, "Hmm...well, I sense that there's something truly alive in there, but I'm not sure what more there is. Technology's not my strong suit."

"We need Chip," said Draco, looking at the treeline.

"Then let's stop wasting time here and storm Mantichrome's base already," said Matt.

"First sensible thing he's said in over an hour," said Elora.

"Erm..." began Contrinus.

"Right, we're not just gonna sit on our hands and wait for him to send another wave of killer robots at us," said Draco, "Let's bring the battle to him."

Contrinus tried to say that Mantichrome was almost certainly preparing a trap but was drowned out via Matt and Draco's testosterone as they charged off towards the treeline. Contrinus sighed and said, "Boys," before flying off after them.

...

Chip meanwhile was staring at the partially roboticized Mina who now had an empty look to her eyes...well, her remaining organic eye, the other was a glowing blue orb. He had heard of this kind of organic-to-cybernetic conversion, but this wasn't something he wanted to see. But he had heard of cases being reversed, though he wasn't sure how to undo this one.

"Mina, can you hear me? You need to concentrate on your memories," he called through the bars, remembering that part as well.

"My audio receptors are functional. My memory bank provides the data needed to complete my orders," said Mina without any emotion.

"What about your parents?" said Chip carefully.

"My organic progenitors are of no importance to my orders as of yet," said Mina.

Chip simply hung his head at that before getting a risky idea. "So you will do anything you're been ordered to do, right?" asked Chip.

"Affirmative," said Mina.

"Then how about we change that order?" said Chip before reaching out and grabbed Mina by the back of the head and uploading viral energy into her.

Mina tried to pull loose at that as the viral energy went to work, eating away at the new programming like the experiments in a pile of coconut cake before Mina's head slumped forward. "Oh smeg, oh smeg, I totally crashed her hard drive," said Chip in a panic, "Oh man, Spyro's gonna kill me."

Then Mina lifted her head and said, "Programming error, programming requires update, please insert new programming."

"Oh thank God, I mean, act like you would before...erm...upgrades," said Chip, taking a few calm breaths

"Processing..." said Mina as her optic flickered and blinked. Then emotion appeared on her face, horror at first. "Oh man, he nearly turned me into a total robot," said Mina before turning to Chip and saying, "Thanks a lot for saving me. Er, can you get the rest of the metal stuff off?"

"Not without the tech back at New Atlantis," said Chip, "If you were fully converted I could do more...half and half is harder." before jumping as Mina twitched.

Mina looked back as the small spines along her back converted into glowing glass bumps. "Er, how long would it take me to finish converting?" she asked.

"At the rate? Before Mantichrome returns most likely," said Chip casually before regretting his casualness.

"I'm gonna completely turn into a robot?!" cried Mina.

Chip gulped at that before saying, "Look on the bright side; it'll be easier to fix." before jumping back as Mina's optic turned red.

"That's not the point," she snapped.

"Well, maybe you'll get a couple of cool temporary powers," said Chip.

"Like what?" asked Mina, her optics turning blue again.

"Uh...missile launchers, laser vision, heck, maybe you can turn into a more humanoid robot mode. Though I wouldn't count on the last one."

Mina looked thoughtful at that, at least as far as her remaining eye indicated before she winced, the metal covering the rest of her back and her tail, a nasty mini chainsaw appearing at the tip. "Er, see? Chainsaw tail, that's, uh, that's pretty cool," said Chip.

Mina was whimpering however, which was bad as Chip could hear Mantichrome coming back. "Er, Mina, you think you can act like a robot again?" asked Chip.

"I don't want a chainsaw tail, don't want it," gibbered Mina.

Chip sighed sadly, clearly seeing that Mina was not gonna calm down on her own. "Sorry about this," he said before grabbing the back of her head again.

...

Mantichrome stomped in angrily. His droids on the perimeter were going dark, meaning Matt was on his way. Still, he had one valuable droid that he collected and he was not going to let it go to waste.

"Mina, my dear, it's time to put you to use," he said, looking at the now fully-converted dragoness.

"I am yours to command," said Mina in a hollow tone.

"Very good, I want you to go out and obliterate the half dragon and his companions," said Mantichrome happily.

"Your command shall be carried out once I've finished calibrating my new weaponry," said Mina.

"Mantichrome looked confused before he snapped, "CALIBRATE IT ON THEM! NOW OBEY ME!"

"Complying..." said Mina, though her optics were flashing like a loading icon.

"Now go, destroy them, and provide a good show for Chip," sneered Mantichrome.

"Put on a show," repeated Mina before marching out.

Mantichrome grinned, looking at Chip. "What have you got to say now?" he said smugly.

"You're just setting yourself up for another big disappointment, yet again," said Chip nonchalantly.

Mantichrome snapped "CHIIIIII-" before freezing in place.

"This'll never get old," said Chip happily

Yvonne's voice played, "Oh, Jeffrey, can you and your other personalities still love me, even knowing what I am?"

"Of course, my dear," said Jeffrey's voice, "None of us care about what you are. Except for Oscar, but no one pays any attention to him."

"Oh, I'm so... Wait, who's Oscar?"

"Oh, right, you haven't met him yet."

...

"Ok, it's a simple plan, guys: we go in, wreck what needs wrecking, and tear Manti's head off and play football with it till he says where Chip and Mina are," said Matt, in a seemingly angry voice

"Sounds good to me," said Draco, "Any questions?"

Contrinus raised her wing and asked, "How did Mantichrome get a factory out here?"

The others looked puzzled before Matt shook his head. "That doesn't matter, we just smash it," he growled.

"So how are we supposed to get in?" asked Elora, "There are robots everywhere."

"I'll show you how," growled Matt, peeling off.

"No, he wouldn't…" groaned Contrinus before Matt spat a huge plasma ball at the main factory doors.

"Matt isn't very well known for his subtlety," said Draco, "In fact, he's famous for his lack of it."

Contrinus nodded. "On the plus side, Mantichrome's got nothing that can take him-" she said before Matt came backwards out the hole on a pair of blue laser beam blasts.

"Is that typical?" asked Elora.

"No, it is not," said Contrinus with worry.

A mechanical dragon leapt out of the hole, firing again as Matt tried to get up. "Ok, so Mantichrome's made a new line of drone," said Draco, "Seems rather small for a...uh oh." The 'drone' turned to look at them, looking how Draco would imagine Mina would look. "Oh boy," he whimpered before two eye beams tagged him.

"Is that who I think that is?" asked Elora.

"Er, I'm sure we can reach the real Mina that's under that metal shell," said Contrinus nervously.

'Mina' however had now turned her attention to Contrinus. Mina spread her metal wings and flapped them hard. However, she only got a few inches off the ground.

"Oh, good, she's too heavy for her wings now," said Contrinus before flying up, "All I have to do is outspeed her until she tires out."

Mina seemed to realize this too, landing and leaving her wings outspread as two small boosters unfolded. "Erm...Contrinus?" said Elora, pointing.

"Yes, I see them," said Contrinus with resignation.

Mina immediately took to the sky, several knives extending from her paws as she came after them.

"Still think we can outfly her?" asked Elora.

"Not so sure, but do I have a choice?" said Contrinus.

"Cease your evasive actions," intoned Mina coldly

"Oh, like she would really expect me to obey that," said Contrinus.

...

Mantichrome, who thanks to Whipsting, was now able to talk again, laughed as Contrinus had to dodge a nasty slash. "Oh, who says you can't get anything good on the TV?" he laughed, Chip looking crestfallen.

Just then, Mantichrome got a call on his communicator. He went over to another monitor and patched it through, showing Ghoulwyrm's face. "Mantichrome, how goes the deforestation?" asked Ghoulwyrm.

"Fine...and my little nanovirus worked a treat. I even managed to test it on a Avalarian," said Mantichrome happily.

"An Avalarian?" asked Ghoulwyrm, "Is it working properly?"

"See for yourself," said Mantichrome, patching Ghoulwyrm's monitor to show the fight outside.

Ghoulwyrm could be seen fiddling on his end to get the feed before he smirked, "Very nice, that one seems familiar. Who is she?" he asked.

"This is Lumina, daughter of Spyro and Cynder," said Mantichrome smugly, expecting Ghoulwyrm to be very pleased with this.

"Mantichrome...YOU IMBECILE!" roared Ghoulwyrm, Mantichrome's torso suddenly sparking in a way that was quite different from his earlier fits.

"But...but..." he began as Ghoulwyrm snapped "I have plans for her! You'd better hope they find a way to reverse your little cybercold or I will tear your CPU out!" before a purple fireball engulfed the feed and it went dead.

Mantichrome did not take that well. "It's not fair! It's not fair!" he cried, "I was actually winning! I was winning! I had the perfect attack droid and now I have to give it up!"

"It could be worse. Matt might have gotten to you first," said Chip, for once feeling a tiny bit sorry for Mantichrome.

Mantichrome turned and snapped at Chip, "Don't say that! That's just an open invitation for him to-" He was cut off by one of the walls blowing open.

A clawed hand peeled away the rest to reveal Matt, in his 'Aztec dragon' form, snarling angrily. "Someone's been a bad robot," he snarled.

"It just had to be Lynch! It just had to be-" Mantichrome's anguish was cut short as the stress caused him to have another fit.

"You know Yvonne, since you're a shapeshifter, you can make a couple of improvements to your form," said Jeffrey's voice.

"Ooh, do you and your other personalities have some suggestions?" asked Yvonne's voice.

"We wrote them down, ignore Oscar's."

"Ooh, you naughty, naughty boys..." There was soon the sound of much kissing and moaning.

Matt actually paused at this before looking at Chip, questionably. Chip shrugged and said, "I think he's taken a bit too much punishment to his processing network lately. He's been like that all day. You wanna leave him like this? He's lost anyways since Ghoulwyrm ordered him to undo Mina's conversion."

"What? That thing out there's Mina?" snapped Matt before chomping Mantichrome before Chip could stop him and tossing him out the hole.

"Matt, I need some info about his nanovirus to work on the reversal procedure," said Chip. Matt however wasn't listening, already going to town on the struggling and now-very awake Mantichrome. "Matt! Matt! We need his head in one piece at least!" yelled Chip.

Matt seemed to snap out of it a little at that, spitting the aforementioned head at Chip. Chip held up Mantichrome's head which didn't seem in the moment anymore, judging by the spinning optics and the creepy childlike laughter coming out of his mouth. Chip winced as he saw that Matt was tearing the rest of Mantichrome to shreds

"Matt, I think you need to stop and take a long look at yourself," said Chip.

Matt spat out the piece of metal in his mouth and snapped, "I don't have time for stupid philosophy crap!"

"No, really, take a good look at yourself," said Chip, holding up a reflective sheet of metal in front of Matt.

Matt paused as he saw his face, the same one from El Dorado, before he dropped what was left of Mantichrome and backed up a bit. "I think if you think back on how you've been acting lately, this shouldn't be that big a surprise," said Chip calmly.

Matt growled again at that, before going back to attacking Mantichrome...and dodging a laser bolt from the returning Mecha-Mina.

"Ok, Mina, show's over. You can flip your emotions back on now," said Chip. Mina didn't respond to that, instead firing at Matt again. "Oh, I guess I need to flip them back on for her," said Chip.

Matt glared at that. "Flip what?" he snapped angrily.

"Er, I broke her obedience programming before, but she was freaking out too much to act like she was still a droid so I, uh, temporarily suppressed her emotions," said Chip.

"You WHAT?" snapped Matt, blocking several laser bolts with a plasma shield.

"I can switch them back on, I just need to get close enough to her," said Chip.

Matt growled before grabbing Chip and throwing him at Mina. Instead, Chip missed Mina and ended up buried to his arms in the ceiling above. "Ok, this is not to our advantage," said Chip dryly.

Mina turned to look at Chip, before Mantichrome's head said angrily "Blast them! Blast them all!"

"You keep out of this!" snapped Matt before Mina rocket-boosted into Matt's side.

Contrinus and Elora finally managed to get in at that to see this. "Mina, stop!" called Contrinus, wincing as Mina rocket-slammed Matt again.

"Well, at least the monster has been stopped," said Elora, eyeing Mantichrome's mangled body.

"Excuse me, can I get a little help please?" called Chip. Contrinus nodded, flying up to pull Chip loose as Matt tried to stop Mina as she was blasting him.

Chip was pulled loose pretty quickly, though he slipped out of Contrinus's grip and fell to the floor. "Ow!" yelled Mantichrome, on whose head Chip has landed.

Chip held up Mantichrome's head and said, "I think I have an idea."

"You wouldn't dare," said Mantichrome, suddenly getting a horrible feeling of Chip's plan...

...

Mina circled the target, the dragon that had mauled her master to a useless head. He was proving resilient but was wearing down quickly.

Just then, Mantichrome's voice said, "Lumina, I am ordering you to stand down. Reassert your dormant personality programming."

Mina paused, something about the commander's voice was off, causing her to turn and see Mantichrome's head poking out from a semi-open crate.

"Well don't just stand there. Finish him off al-" snapped Mantichrome before his head sparked with indigo electricity and he said, "Override code initiate. Lumina, stand down and reassert personality programming."

Mina flew down at that before peering closely and saying, "Hack detected, your codes are no longer valid." opening her mouth to reveal a waiting plasma blast.

"I hate you, Chip," snapped Mantichrome. A few seconds before Mina's attack hit, Mantichrome's head jerked and suddenly his mouth opened and operatic music started pouring out of it. Then the blast hit him and he was sent through the wall.

Mina, satisfied, leaned in and tore the crate open to reveal Chip, who waved nervously before grabbing her face. A jolt of indigo energy and Chip said, "Ok, Mina's back under control of herself and I have Mantichrome's nanovirus formula so everything should be alright now."

Matt however seemed to be having a fit. "Erm, what does 'psychotic breakdown' mean?" asked Mina dizzily, the words flashing in her vision.

"When Matt's involved?" said Contrinus before dodging one of the plasma orbs that Matt started throwing around everywhere, "It means 'hit the deck'."

"Matt, get a damn grip!" snapped Draco before Matt did just that...he grabbed Draco. "Not what I meant…" rasped Draco.

After Draco was flung aside, Chip said, "Well, I'd normally say leave Matt to demolish the place on his own. But considering he's in full Blood Plasma mode..." He had to pause and duck a plasma orb, "We need to calm him down quick."

Mina nodded. "Tell me you have a plan. I don't wanna be smashed by my psycho godfather," she whimpered.

"Actually, I think I know what to do," said Elora before darting forward. Matt notice her coming and spat several blasts about them. Demonstrating finely tuned reflexes, Elora skirted and dodged around each blast, getting progressively closer to Matt. When she was in range, Matt reared up to slash at her with his claws. But Elora jumped up, grabbed onto Matt's neck with her legs, and gave him a big kiss on the lips. Matt froze in shock before Elora pulled back and said seductively, "So, handsome, how about I help you relieve all that big stress?"

Matt stared as he got the look he usually got when parts of his brain were melting before he fainted.

"Er, good work, Elora," said Contrinus, who had covered Mina's optics.

"You think he'll be in a better mood to play after he wakes up?" asked Elora, still sounding frisky.

"He already has a mate!" snapped Draco and Contrinus.

"Really? Oh, poo. I thought I'd get one last hurrah before my metamorphosis kicks in," said Elora, sounding disappointed.

"Er, did I miss something?" asked Chip.

"Elora hit on Matt and gave him a heart attack," said Contrinus dully.

"Oh, what was that about a metamorphosis?" asked Chip.

"Fauns are actually centaur teenagers until they grow their new legs," said Draco, "Did you really need to flirt with him like that?"

"All fauns do it," said Elora, "We can't have children until we get our wisdom feet so we get as much experience as we can before that."

"Well...that explains why fauns are so...promiscuous in classical art," said Chip warily before looking thoughtful and saying, "I wonder if anyone has done a study on this? There ought to be fascinating scientific texts about the developmental stages of centaurs..."

Contrinus snapped, "Not in front of Mina!"

"Uh, can I get my flesh back now?" asked Mina.

...

To say that Spyro and Cynder were shocked had been an understatement. Chips counternanites would take a day or two to get to work so until then...

"Moooom...I've got an armor-plated hide, I don't need to be in my nest all day," complained Mina.

"I don't care! You shouldn't have gone with them and they shouldn't have let you!" Cynder said, snapping the last part at Draco and Chip.

"Hey, I didn't ask Elora to bring her along," said Draco, "That teleportation spell of her was not that exclusive."

"Besides, it could have ended up worse if she wasn't there," said Chip, "Mantichrome was more than ready to throw in the towel once he had to give up Mina."

"Who's Mantichrome?" growled Cynder, glaring at Chip angrily.

"Hasn't Matt told you of him yet?" asked Chip, sounding surprised, "I would have thought he'd spend most of his time bragging about the various villains he's beaten." A snap from Cynder caused Chip to yelp.

"Mantichrome's not a problem now," said Draco, "It's gonna take him weeks to get himself back in order, particularly his scrambled processor."

Cynder seemed to calm down at that before Mina asked, "Can I go see how my godfather's doing? I beat him up pretty bad." trying the puppy dog look, which was nigh impossible when you have optics for eyes.

"He's at a meeting right now," said Cynder before turning to Draco and Chip and asking, "Shouldn't you be at that meeting?"

"We've been trying to wrap this up for the last five minutes," said Chip with annoyance.

Mina just pouted at that, somehow still looking cute in metal as Draco and Chip turned to go. "Couple of days and she'll start to shed that covering," he said.

"And tell Spyro to stop denying that his daughter's currently metal, it's getting creepy," said Draco.

...

Matt was currently at that point giving Spyro the evil eye, the incident in Fractured Forest having been council-worthy.

Cyril was currently looking over the report on the incident, "Apathy towards the suffering of others, wanton and unnecessary destruction, a lack of hesitation towards attacking allies, my, it sounds rather sociopathic."

Matt said "Look, I've explained about my run in with..." before Zara made a scoffing noise. "Please, if such a clan existed they would be in the Warfang records."

"Yes they should, back during the First War of Warfang and there's earlier records regarding the Sun Clan they were derived from," said Matt.

"I'm afraid that documents regarding the time periods including and preceding the primary conflict with Malefor has been subject to improper placement to the point where most texts are unfindable and many that had been properly sorted have suffered collateral damage to the point of illegibility," said Volteer.

"They were incinerated when Warfang got bombed, weren't they?" said Matt blankly.

"Unfortunately," said Volteer.

"What about the Atlantean archives?" asked Matt.

"Still being deciphered," said one of the Atlantean representatives, "We've had more pressing matters to attend to than looking through the old records."

Matt glared at that. "I think wrongful accusations are more important," he began before his comm beeped, WARDEN calling. "Not now, you jumped up laptop," he hissed.

"Sir, I have been trying to get your attention for the past several hours," said WARDEN calmly.

"Can't you see that I'm facing a court martial which I'm about to lose because I can't show them the plasma dragon family tree?" snapped Matt.

WARDEN said calmly, "You mean the mission files? Your nanites continued to follow mission log protocols throughout that entire escapade, it should suffice. Which reminds me, Xander, how is the plasma dragon colony fairing?" asked WARDEN.

"What plasma dragon colony?! Why didn't you tell me?!" demanded Zara.

"It's the subject of that meeting you keep pushing back," said Xander in a calm voice though with a wry smile.

Zara snorted angrily at that before saying, "Well...it seems you are exonerated again, human."

"However, considering the volatility of your...condition, I believe that therapeutic treatment is required before Capt. Lynch is fit to command again," said one of the Atlantean councilmembers, "All in favor?"

Matt just hung his head as the inevitable unanimous 'ayes' were heard. "Et tu, Spyro?" he groaned

"It'll only be for a little while," said Spyro, "I'm sure you'll be given a clean bill of health in no time."

"Not a chance," said Zara gleefully.

Matt turned to her and said, "You know, you're not an actual councilmember, you don't have to be here."

"I'm still a guardian and this is a minor enough matter to not exclude me," said Zara smugly.

"I hate you," said Matt dully, Zara grinning "The feeling is mutual, human."

...

Matt walked out of the council chambers to see Chloe, Draco, and Chip waiting for him. "Sorry we took so long," said Chip, "Cynder was pretty hard to console."

"Not to mention someone had to stop and get a bite to eat," said Draco, as Morph tottered into view with a drumstick that looked like it could have come off an ostrich.

"So...how did it go?" asked Morph, only to be flattened into a disk. "That bad?" he rasped.

"They said I need to take therapy before I can be allowed to captain my ship again," snapped Matt sourly.

"Ouch, you are probably pretty angry, right?" said Draco carefully.

"Gee, what gave you that impression?!" snapped Matt.

"Look, all you need to do is fake it until the tests are done and then you can go back to yelling out people for no reason," said Chloe a little sarcastically.

"Since you are currently not in command of anything at the moment, may I finally be allowed to address that which I have been trying to tell you for quite some time?" asked WARDEN.

"Fine, blab," snapped Matt angrily.

"Very well then. My intent was to give you my two weeks' notice, but since you've been pushing off my announcement, it is actually a five days' notice. I'll stepping down from your ship's AI," said WARDEN.

"Wait, you can't do that. My calculator doesn't resign. The coffee maker doesn't go on strike!" snapped Matt.

"Yeah, who's gonna tell me not to do stuff because I'm not smart enough?" asked Morph.

Chloe glared at that, snapping, "We all tell you that every single day."

"Oh, sure when it's convenient for you," said Morph dismissively.

"Either way, I am requesting re-installment on another ship," said WARDEN calmly.

"But our ship needs an AI," protested Draco, "To handle all the...high-tech...maintenance...stuff."

"I have a replacement in mind. She arrived on a merchant ship several days ago," said WARDEN calmly.

"I'm not so sure about having a new AI taking over," said Chloe.

"She'll be having a trial period of course, to get used to work with you," said WARDEN, "I am confident she'll be an adequate replacement."

"But WARDEN, why would you want to change ships in the first place?" asked Chip.

"Because you're all psychotic, stupid or both," said WARDEN calmly, Chip unable to give an adequate argument

"So where is she?" snapped Matt.

"I wouldn't meet her until you've gotten some degree of control over your temper," said WARDEN, "Wouldn't want to make a bad first impression."

"WARDEN!" yelled Matt, causing the AI to sigh.

"She's at the docks, overseeing the refit of the new ship."

"Fine, I'm gonna go down to see who's joining up and I don't care what mood they see me in!" snapped Matt before changing forms and flying off, his blood plasma coloring still evident

"We'd better follow," began Chip before WARDEN said "Maybe not. This AI actually requested the assignment after I made it clear there was a vacancy."

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Draco.

"It means that she knows him." said WARDEN darkly.

...

Matt's aggression didn't show much sign of letting up. He shoved everyone that was in his way aside without even stopping to apologize. All that was on his mind was finding out who was replacing his AI. He landed, shifting to anthro form, several troopers turning and stepping aside.

"Only interrupt if it looks like someone might be killed," growled Matt as he walked into the hangar.

A woman was looking at several controls, overseeing an Atlantean tech. "Ok, you need to...oh," she said, turning to look and causing Matt to pause.

The woman was of African descent, her hair up in a professional bun. She would have looked like a normal human except that her eyes were clearly cybernetic optics until she adjusted her glasses and they appeared normal. "Captain Lynch," she said calmly, "It's been quite some time. I see you've been through a few changes as well."

"Aria. They tossed you out?" Matt said.

"Not precisely," said Aria, "There has been... a division in between where our respective goals led. So I decided to leave first before things became too...heated later."

"You legged it before they could delete you," said Matt dully.

"Or reprogram me," said Aria.

"Ouch...at least you're not reprogrammed," said Matt casually, Aria a little surprised from how he shrugged it off.

"Yes, and I got away with our latest model of adaptation droid," said Aria as she lifted its arms which seemed to flip into a metal version of itself before changing back. "Based on some Cybertronian data from your last trip to that sector, the pseudoskin is nigh-invulnerable and it's capable of mimicking the most common functions of a woman of my apparent age."

Matt lifted his eye ridges and said, "Any function, eh?"

Aria gave him an annoyed look and said, "Really? You had to jump straight to that?"

"Sorry, it's a basic guy rule," said Matt, Look, you do know why WARDEN apparently quit?"

"Job dissatisfaction," said Aria, "Apparently being lost on a pre-Columbian era planet had made a bad impression on him."

"Could be worse, the animals could have talked back," said Matt smugly.

"I understand you travel with even stranger creatures these day, in addition to becoming one yourself," said Aria.

"Great, makes you perfect for the job. Welcome aboard," said Matt.

"Well, I'm not officially part of the crew yet. First I need to go through the trial period to see if I am compatible with your crew," said Aria, "Also, I've heard something about you not being currently in command over...anger issue?"

"That's rubbish. I haven't got anger issues," said Matt, Aria nodding, counting inwardly before Matt snapped "...and I'll bite the heads off anyone who disagrees."

Aria gave a happy sigh and said, "Just like the good old days."

---

There's another chapter and with it, introducing two characters from the old Spyro games: Moneybags and Elora. I would like to think I've kept pretty well to Moneybags' original character, though I did pattern him after J.H. Slick from the Jumanji cartoon, so yes, he'd be voiced by Tim Curry. Elora, I got a bit more creative with. A little fun fact that is that she was originally supposed to be a centaur but the designers decided she'd be cuter with two legs instead four. This is sort of a bridging between the two concepts, along with a little creativity regarding the natures of fauns and centaurs. Mantichrome's behavior from his damaged processor is also based on a villain from another Insomniac games series, but I don't think I need to tell you which one.

Aria is from an earlier story by my co-author, which you might not find on this site. Inquire to him about where you can find it.

Anyhow, things are going to be taking a more serious turn with the story for a while, particularly with Matt's plasma dragon nature. That part is still under construction so it might be a while before the next chapter is up. Until then, please review.