Chapter seven: Observing Danny's Powers.
A few more minutes had passed between the guardians and Danny with them asking more about the two dragons he faced off against. Danny described Dora and Aragon as accurately as he could.
He even described the effects of their amulets and what it takes to activate them and their side effects as to Aragon becoming a black dragon with old malice but evil enough to match Malifor. Though the amulet did give them feral instincts rather than incredible intellect.
He had forgotten to mention this earlier but he didn't think it would be relevant, so he told them now about his encounter with the box ghost wielding Pandora's box. They asked what was interesting about it.
Danny told them about the manifestations of evil rising out every time it was opened and the dragon like creature that came from it.
In Greek Mythology it was called a hydra. He took the liberty of describing its physical features including wingless body and lacking even the simplest intellectual mind, yet it made up for it with its multiple heads.
Cyril's face was laced with fear and shock just imagining the creature. Even one of the most experienced guardians especially Ignitus would have had trouble against that.
After they got finished talking about remaining things that may have seemed relevant, Danny asked if he could go see Spyro Cyril agreed under the condition that he be watched due to his hostility towards just meeting him and protecting the young purple dragon.
The teal ice guardian accompanied Danny to the medical wing in the temple. When they got there, he was still asleep. "Cyril, how long until his wing heals do you think" Probably a couple of days considering the damage to it why do you ask?"
"Well normally humans don't heal as fast as dragons according to myths and fantasies yet since this is a different world the laws of nature might be different here" the half ghost answered.
"That and if he wakes up without you or someone else explaining to him why I am here, I don't want him to start attacking me right after his wing just healed. It might cause more damage."
Cyril got the point.
"Alright, that part I understand." At that moment Volteer just walked through the door.
"There you are young one, Danny was it, Terrador and I were a little interested in how you were able to fight off Malifor from getting Spyro and Cynder.
We would like to see of more of your powers in person as we haven't seen anything like it. That is if its alright with you."
"Depends on how you want me to demonstrate" he asked hoping it wouldn't be too difficult.
Cyril answered Danny for Volteer, "usually ts fighting against dummies or a sparring match..."
"But since you don't want me to hurt anyone by accident you want to go with the first choice huh?" he asked them both.
Volteer's eyebrow perked in curiosity. "His hostility towards me; he looked at the ice guardian and your worry for Spyro and Cynder's safety am I not correct?"
"Yes, that's true" "its alright" Danny said, "but before we start, do you have a place I could put this?" he said as he held up his bag.
"The infimap shows the location of the next portal that will open but I didn't see it on there, I'll have to figure out why, later that is."
'Usually random portals open all the time, why didn't this one work'? Volteer directed Danny to a spare room that he could borrow. "There are other dragons who reside here at the temple but for the weekend they decided to take some time with their families, seeing as how they were nervous of letting them live here after the war."
"I can ask about that later, just asking about it is probably a story you don't want to speak about right now huh?." He told the electric guardian. Volteer gave him a smile 'this person really does have a compassionate side'.
They left his things in the room and proceeded to the training arena.
Once they arrived at the training arena, cynder and Terrador were already there. "Its nice that you could join us Danny, I take it you don't have a problem with this?" Danny was wondering how this training session is going to work, hopefully they didn't do anything too serious.
"Would you mind telling me what it is just to be on the safe side" Volteer has already told you didn't he?" He did yeah and nodded. "You ready to begin"? Again he nodded.
Volteer pulled a switch somewhere in the room and the statue of a dragon in the room vanished. In its place were ten dummies made of wood, each one of them had a weapon flailing in some sort of odd manner.
By the looks of these things they would not stand for long. Was this what they used for training? Punching dummies? He shook his head in annoyance.
All were about to engage him somehow.
"You have got to be kidding me" Danny said in a sarcastic tone. 'I probably won't even break a sweat considering how fragile these things are'. "You better hope that these things are made of a hard wood. Otherwise they'll just break apart like sandbags."
They were thinking to themselves 'what is a sand bag?'
Danny changed into his ghost form and fired several ectoplasmic energy rays which lay waist to the dummies in less than ten seconds. Ten more dummies appeared in their place, but these had some more bigger weapons like spears and swords. He decided to have some fun first and fired low power rays from his fingertips knocking the weapons out of their hands. Then he hovered a little and let loose a ball of green energy which disintegrated the majority of the enemies on contact.
Everybody was impressed, from what they had seen so far that did not look like an earth shot to them, yet had the concentration and heat of fire.
It didn't look like he was taking it seriously so Cyril pulled the next switch and twenty dummies appeared.
He smirked getting an idea. Flying to the center of the room and his eyes started to glow blue. He shot the beam towards the floor freezing the surface and making every dummy start to slip. "Anybody up for a game of bowling"?
Danny focused a sphere of cyro-ecto energy into his hand and rolled it toward the group where it took out half of them. He let loose another blast and froze the remaining ones in place. Then he shot icicles toward each of them and broke the dummies apart. Cyril murmured that "this person can use ice too?"
Terrador pulled the final switch and eight giant dummies appeared with shields. Danny frowned in annoyance. He turned invisible and appeared behind each dummy. "Looking for someone, he repeated this process several times and finally deciding to end it the old fashioned way.
First he kicked two of the dummies in the head with an interesting amount of physical strength sending them into the wall with a loud 'bang', then he flashed invisible and reared back to the floor, charging up his hands with a little bit of ectoplasm, he suddenly sprung punching the dummy in the chin knocking it off of its feet and into the air several feet. Where it landed on its back and broke apart.
Getting a little bit more energy from his core, he focused the cryotic energy into a sharp ice sword.
A cocky grin appeared on his face. Making quick work of the next four by decapitating two of them with his sword then doing a couple of excellent acrobatic manouvers, he cut the next one vertically in half and took out the other one by aiming his sword at the sixth dummy where a bit of ecto energy emerged from the tip and shot straight through its chest.
Figuring the blade would have been too much for the rest of the practice he let it vaporize into the air.
Danny finished off the last two by picking up the dummy with amazing strength and swung it on the floor and then into the final one causing them both to break apart ending the session.
It would show that everyone was impressed to say the least. Danny could have sworn he heard Terrador "where has this one been during the war"? He shifted back to human form and walked on over to the group. "Well"?
Half the group had their mouths open and staring into space. "I have to say young one you took care of those dummies almost as fast as Spyro and Cynder did maybe even faster". Volteer proclaimed. "heh, couple of years of practice and experience, it may look it but I haven't revealed all my powers yet." "WHAT?" Cynder shouted incredously, "those weren't all of your powers?" Danny crossed his arms and smirked at her.
"That was far from what I can really do" and it was not too far from the truth. He hadn't demonstrated overshadowing, shielding, energy bursts, intangibility, duplication, or the wail. That and he also started developing an assortment of ecto weapons from his hand like swords, staff and scythe blades; not just from ice, which was cool in his opinion; and lightning though he never actually perfected this technique yet as it also ran the risk of harming him.
Though he doubted he would need them soon it wouldn't be necessary and it would take all the fun out of the demonstration. Teleportation was another interesting power that he was itching to try of course it would be some time before he could get the chance to practice it.
"I also have an involuntary power that's part of my body which is kinda like an internal sensor for whenever there is another ghost nearby or in the area." He continued, "but technically, its an extension of my ice core".
"Ice core"? Cyril asked curiosly
"Half ghosts such as myself have a special kind of core, these cores can help to determine what our advanced techniques consist of." "My arch enemy's was fire and mine is ice, but as there are only three in existence right now, that's all we know." He finished.
'Interesting' Cyril thought to himself. Then he backpedaled as he recalled something Danny said.
"Wait back up, you said you can actually sense if ghosts are nearby?" Cyril asked in disbelief.
"Yes, except they have to be in range for me to sense them. Don't ask how its just the way my body works. Its kind of the same way I knew you two were fighting a ghost". He motioned to Cynder who blushed. "Do you guys think that we can turn in for the night"? Danny asked them. "Of course young one" Terrador said by the way I hope you don't mind me asking this but how old are you exactly." "Sixteen" Danny answered the earth guardian. "Almost a year older than Spyro and Cynder" he smiled.
He went to his room and had dozed off to dreamland. Cynder and Sparx did the same. Meanwhile the guardians decided to have one last meeting before the turning in themselves. "Its hard to believe Cyril." Volteer admitted to his colleague. "Something like this happens right when Malifor shows up again. How is this even possible?"
'Somebody who has powers of a ghost too and still alive?'
"Do not get too excited Volteer, like you said it happens right after Malifor shows up again, for all we know he could be in league with him." Cyril voiced his opinion.
"I'm not too sure that's the case. Cyril, according to Sparx's side of the story, that young one Danny, surprised Malifor on more than one occasion and in Malifors case it was more of a negative type of surprise meaning he was not benefiting Malifor."
Terrador reminded the two of the earlier explanation from the dragonfly.
That and the fact he brought up the existence as well as presence of the infimap personally we need to keep quiet on that little detail however his ability to sense other ghosts, he might be able to find Malifor even if he does hide himself."
"Spyro should be waking up sometime tomorrow." The ice guardian checked on his condition earlier on. "Why don't we ask for his opinion once we explain to him the past events that happened since his fight?"
"Sounds reasonable Cyril, and if at all possible maybe we can show him around the temple and Warfang for a little tour." He said a little too quickly.
"We shouldn't rush to fast though, remember there are dragons coming back and the high council would also be less lenient just from the sight of him and kick him out before he can voice his opinion." Terrador reminded them both.
"Alright we will wait until Spyro makes his response as he should also have a say". Volteer concluded. Every guardian agreed on that fact.
"Uuugh ugh… the purple dragon was having a nightmare where Malifor was split into two identical dragons, and he was not faring very well. Face it you cannot win your friends are gone the guardians are dead and I am more powerful than ever before."
"That's what you think, Cynder and I beat you once we will do it again."
Malifor laughed at him. Cynder which one? He said in a playful manner. Spyro looked at him confused. Are you talking about that black mess of a corpse up there he motioned to a ledge where cynder lay dead the cynder he knew. Or the Terror of the Skies my true general? And a big black dragon: Cynder's corrupted form stood next to Malifor, void of any good in her.
"CYNDER" Spyro yelled in his sleep and it was enough to wake him up with the black dragoness sitting right next to his bedside. "Oh Cynder, your safe" he said as he nuzzled her, Danny just smiled as he looked at them from the door while invisible. He had gotten up earlier to check on the purple dragon.
Spyro tried to push himself towards her but was stopped by a sharp pain in his shoulder where his wings were.
"Easy Spyro that beating from malifor still left you a little winded" the black dragoness reminded him. "what happened how long was I out" he asked. Sparx flew up to him saying that he was out for about an entire day maybe more. Luckily someone came and fought off the big guy for you two.
Spyro was appalled at the news that someone else was able to fight off Malifor and to top it off they did it alone, but how and who? "Who saved us?" he questioned the dragonfly.
Danny saw that as his cue, turning invisible slowly as he walked into the room with them playfully mocking: "Well well, good morning sleeping beauty."
The purple dragon tensed up when he approached the three of them. Danny was wearing the same attire as when he first entered Warfang: Forge's vest, hood, his own jeans complete with white tennis shoes. (one could tell that from someone with Danny's stature, condition, powers, choice of clothing, and appearance would make someone from that world quite nervous if not uneasy).
To Spyro this was probably an ape who may have learned a few tricks from Malifor.
"Who are you get away from her." He snapped at the newcomer. "You might want to chill out a bit; and with that wing of yours having holes in it from that fight with Malifor, I mean literally." Danny spoke to him in a smart alac tone.
"Spyro this is Danny, he's the one who fought Malifor." Cynder said with a hint of respect.
"What but how did you defeat him?"
The story was told in about seven minutes and at the end Danny said to them: I wasn't sure if I could defend against it, so the truth is I didn't defeat him. All I managed to do at the end was fake our death so that he would leave for the time being."
"So you didn't win against him." Spyro was disappointed at what he thought. "No I didn't say that, I just wasn't sure if I could finish it by defending against a certain attack of his and risk getting the three you caught in the crossfire."
"Oh, but what…" Cynder started but finished the story for her. "I did what I had to do but the important thing is that you two are safe for the time being."
Spyro then spoke up "I only hope that the people of Warfang don't see me like this. Dragons who survived the war are in the city right now, if they saw me in the shape I was in there would be fear and panic."
"Well I hate to bust your little bubble of comfort but it was still daytime when they brought you in unconscious so you get the idea." Danny told him of his predicament.
The purple dragon groaned at this news.
"Look I'm sorry that it turned out this way but I think that it might be best that we took this all one step at a time."
"I would have to agree with him on that one Spyro" Cynder told him.
"Well I hate to add more grief to the mix, but remember evil she dragon?" Sparx spoke to Cynder after a moment which she returned with a glare, "You came in after spyro and in a lot better shape so a lot of people would have their opinions on you."
She hung her head in sadness at the realization of what he just said.
"Sparx don't call her evil she dragon anymore, she has been through enough."
"What does he mean by that?" Danny asked Cynder out of mere curiosity.
Having to want to get some of the weight off of her chest and to see Danny's opinion, she told him the story of her life and role in the war and how she ended up with Spyro. The ending of the story was the only comfortable thing besides some people still rebuking her.
The story involving Malifor and the war and Cynder's role in it took a while to explain to Danny, but at the end he just smiled at them. "I can understand how you feel" he told her as he reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out a picture of himself, Tucker, and Sam together and showed it to the two dragons.
"That's my girlfriend on the right, Sam Manson, she and I have been in similar situations." He told the two of them. All three of them looked at the photo until Sparx spoke up saying "what's with heroes going for the darker girls".
Danny then looked to the dragonfly in a joking manner "Don't worry Sparky I'm sure you'll find a girl who likes you someday."
For the first time since he woke up, Spyro actually burst out laughing despite the pain in his back. Cynder and Danny both joined him. Danny looked at them with a look of longing kind of related to when he missed his friends and family.
"Just looking at the three of you speak to each other reminds me so much about myself and my friends. One of them somewhat annoying like your friend Sparx, Spyro and the other she's got a bit of a dark persona yet she's really sweet."
The dragonfly tried to retaliate, "Oh come on I can't be that annoying." He paused for a moment. "can I"?
The black dragoness ignored him that time. "Why do you say that Danny"? Cynder asked him.
"Since the time that I first obtained my powers, my friends and I got into many fights with malevolent ghosts over the course of two and a half years. Being someone who enjoys wearing black or darker personality, she of course caught the interests of two ghosts in particular: a black dragon ghost, the one who I told you and the guardians about earlier Cynder. And a vicious plant like ghost who hated humans but adored her because of her green thumb".
They looked a little confused at that last remark.
He continued in a slightly annoyed tone, "it means that she has a love for plants such as knowing the different types and caring for each one of them." However it also shows that she is the opposite of my other friend Tucker Foley. He, like a dragon has a taste for meat and she is a vegetarian, meaning she doesn't like to eat meat.
"Well I can say this much about her" Cynder continued "I don't know how or why a person pretty as she is likes darkness but by the sound of your description of her, she could get along with the infirmary staff in the city quite well."
Danny then said to her "she can probably tell you about the darkness part better than I can after all its her story to tell and not mine."
After a few minutes Danny spoke to Spyro, "do you think that you can walk or fly right now." "I should be able to fly in a couple of hours give or take." Spyro told him. Danny then reminded him, "In that case we might want to go see the guardians, they are probably wondering how you are doing." "I suppose so" Spyro continued glumly.
The four of them went to the guardians chamber where they found the three of them speaking to Forge, the cheetah who had helped Hunter to escort Danny into the temple.
"Young ones its good to see you again Terrador said smiling, Danny and Spyro could tell that there was a hint of fear in the greeting. We have some things that we need to speak to you all about but unfortunately according to Forge here some of them are urgent."
Forge started to explain to them that he had just gotten out of a meeting with the dragon council. According to them, because of the timeline and the coincidence of recent events involving Spyro being brought into the city in the state that he was in and Cynder up and walking several hours after, they have decided to place her on trial.
"I am sorry to say this but some of them say that her past crimes do not excuse her from this decision of theirs, and unless other witnesses come forth she will obtain a harsh sentence." He finished.
"But they can't do that" Spyro ranted to the teenage cheetah. "Easy Spyro, we will see what we can do to make sure that she gets a fair trial," Terrador said trying to comfort him and Cynder. "All of us will" Volteer added in. "Danny I understand that you might see yourself as a witness but if you expose yourself to everyone it will cause a panic that I am not sure people will need".
"Terrador, Cyril, Volteer." Spyro looked at each of the three guardians. "In the short time that I have known Danny I feel that he would be eligible and trusted enough to serve as a witness. You can't risk putting him up on the stand Spyro, they would probably throw you into prison as well for treason."
"We have already seen what he resembles the first time we laid eyes on him: like an ape." Cyril finished.
Danny glared at the ice guardian his own cold glare and to Cyril it was almost scarier than Malifors look. "Look I know that you guys don't want me to come to the trial but I will. I can tell if there is any injustice and if I see fit that I need to announce myself as a witness to the events surrounded this mess, then I will." Danny replied boldly.
"Alright lets go, Forge could you take us the courtroom where the trial will be held oh and Danny keep the hood up for safety measures please." Volteer said from one to the other.
(A/N) I like to thank those who read my story so far and next chapter I will bring Danny's friends and family into the mix.