Humanity's Finest

Chapter 8

The first thing that Cynder noticed when she opened her eyes was the lack of light, the only thing that seemed to reveal her surroundings was the light bulbs that showed little to nothing. But then a strange smell assaulted her nostrils, snorting Cynder looked around for the source and found something that nearly caused her to gag. A corpse of an ape was standing nearby, its fur was almost completely gone; and a large amount of skin was completely torn off in various places. Its bottom jaw was severed; leaving its tongue hanging lazily from the remains of its mouth. She instantly turned her head to the left when she heard metal groaning in protest, a door opened moments later the light outside shining inside' allowing Cynder to see everything around her. She then wished she hadn't; surrounding her were the motionless corpses of dragons, cheetahs, moles and to her surprise apes and various other creatures. All of them had maggots eating into their skin and they were in poor condition. Her eyes were wide with horror. Who could do something like this?

"I see the 'terror of the skies' is now awake." The figure said with a mocking bow. Cynder narrowed her eyes as a figure in black armour, holding a sword with a decapitated head of an ape impaled on it approached her, a cruel smile on the figures lips. Judging the persons appearance, and the voice it was male.

Cynder whimpered as the figure pulled off the severed head and tossed it at her feet, laughing coldly as he did so. Cynder immediately looked away before knocking the severed head away from her, she shot a glare at the sword wielding figure with hardened eyes' but it didn't seem to bother him. "Who are you? Is the Dark Master back? Did he put you up to this!" Cynder demanded as she bared her teeth in a threatening manner.

"No, I serve someone else. When Malefor cursed my race when we released him' we were doomed to wonder this earth for all eternity." The figure replied as he stepped into the light, revealing himself to Cynder. "I am Grim, the new leader of the apes and servant to The Holy One!" Grim said with a cruel smile. Cynder arched her brows in surprise; the apes were no longer cursed and working for someone who calls him or herself 'The Holy One'?

"Who is this 'Holy One' Grim?" Cynder asked with a hint of curiosity. If she could trick this ape into giving valuable information to her then Cynder could escape with the knowledge of this new threat. That is if she could escape. The ape hesitated for a moment before looking thoughtfully at her Cynder tilted her head slightly; the ape was acting as if he was listening to someone. Grim grinned which caused Cynder to worry about the things that were going through his mind; and the way he stared at her gave her chills. Whatever was going through that mind of his, she guessed it wasn't pleasant.

"It seems The Holy One wants to speak to you." Grim said with a grunt, Cynder raised a brow with disinterest in response.

"And where is this 'Holy One'? All I see in here are a bunch of rotten corpses, along with me and you." Grim's smile became wider than before causing Cynder to shift uncomfortably. He knelt down in front of her and placed his hand on her forehead and tightened the grip he had on her. She tried snapping at him and shaking her head to get him off, but to her dismay, she discovered Grim had a firm grip on her. And he wasn't about to let go anytime soon.

"I'll show you." Grim said, a sadistic smile forming on his face.

Suddenly everything around Cynder began to vanish one by one as a black mist enveloped her. Her surroundings began to turn clockwise as everything was replaced by darkness; closing her eye ands gritting her teeth Cynder waited for something to happen. A minute passed by the time Cynder was bold enough to reopen her eyes; and the moment she did, she instantly regretted it. Standing a distance away from her was a little human girl; her long hair was completely messy and ragged her once clean clothes that were white shoes, brown shirt and a grey skirt were almost completely covered in blood. She was looking at the ground with her hair blacking Cynder's view of the girls face. She kept a brown coloured teddy bear that had blood in some areas of the stuffed body in her arms; an ear was missing as if it was ripped off. A button for its left eye was missing and an arm and a leg was gone.

Cynder turned a full circle so she could examine her surroundings before setting her eyes on the girl again; she crouched down ready to pounce if the girl did anything.

"I can see them everywhere…" The girl said her voice trembling with fear. Cynder tilted her head confusingly at the human girl looked up at her. Cynder gulped when she saw the girls face for the first time. She had green eyes, a scar going down her left cheek, all the way down to her collarbone and it looked like it was done recently. Like her clothes (but at a smaller rate) she had blood on her face, and the right side of her face looked like it was mauled by a predator.

"Do you see them?" The girl asked as if begging for Cynder to say 'yes' to her. "They're everywhere and they won't leave me alone!" She sobbed, her eyes tearing up as she fell to her knees.

Cynder by this time was standing normally giving the girl a look of pity. Whoever did this had completely ruined her life, but who was she? What was her name? And most importantly: Why was she here staring at her? "Are you alright?" Cynder asked trying to sound nonthreatening as she possibly could. "Who are you?"

Suddenly the girl stopped her sobbing and sat there motionless on her knees. Cynder couldn't help but look worried for the girl wanting to approach and comfort her. However those thoughts were cast aside when she looked up again. Her green eyes were gone and were replaced by red glowing eyes that had a glowing mist coming out of them. The torn side of her face opened as she scowled, allowing blood to run freely down her neck and into her clothes. Opening her mouth wide the girl let out a horrific scream that forced Cynder to cover her head with her forearms in a vain attempt to keep the noise out.

"I am Samantha Maxis! And I am you're worst nightmare!" She screamed, her once frightened voice replaced by a torn demonic one that is full of hate and rage.

Cynder breathed heavily in complete fear, this girl; Samantha Maxis was not an ordinary human that much she now knew. Cynder unknowingly took a few steps away from the girl' her eyes wide in horror as two orbs of light shooting out electricity appeared beside Samantha. With a small explosion like blast; two giant zombielike dogs appeared by her side, they looked badly burnt; they had little to no fur on them. That and they were completely black all over their bodies, the dead muscle under their skin made them look bulky. Like Samantha they too had glowing red eyes, only the mist was missing.

"I have a job for you." The girl said her voice now calm, but kept the scowl on her face. "Refuse me and you'll share the same fate of the others had." Cynder took a deep breath and took a daring step forward. Samantha didn't seem to care, the grip on her teddy bear tightened as she grew more impatient.

"What kind of job?"

The scowl that Sam had on her face turned into a smile if the expression she had now could be called one. There was one thing she needed to know. "The ones who are a threat to me, I know their here, in this time." She said with distaste. Cynder nodded allowing the human girl to continue. "But I need to know the location of one. And only one, I believe you met him before…" Cynder looked puzzled for a moment before thinking back; she knew a lot of people and the only one she knew that could be a threat to her would be Spyro; she growled at the thought, she wouldn't let her near Spyro. She'd rather die than to give him away to her. But then again, she didn't really know if Spyro was the one who was a threat to her. But she had to make sure.

"Is this person a dragon, like me except he's… purple?" She hesitantly asked Samantha. Much to her surprise the girl laughed as if it a joke, but stopped and stared at her with a serious expression.

"No." She bluntly replied. "He's a human, wearing green clothing has weapons incredibly advanced than the…" she paused as she attempted to find the right words. "'People' if you could call them that, in this world of yours." Cynder thought back, what was the place called again? Der Riese! Yes that was it, they've found a single human wearing green clothing, and he had some advanced weapons in his possession. Just as she said!

"It this human called 'Dempsey' by any chance?" She asked.

Samantha smiled at her.

After a moment of silence Cynder for the first time in a very long time, smiled coldly. "I'll help you find him; I still have a grudge against him for turning against us."

"Nikolai! Nikolai vould you please vake up!" Richtofen pleaded as he in vain attempted to wake the Soviet by shaking him. Takeo merely stood there his eyes focusing on the three marines who were staring at the scene before with mixed expressions of their faces. Somewhere between curiosity and confusion was seen on them all. The fact that a Nazi was trying to wake up a Soviet, someone who was considered "inferior" to Nazi propaganda was a bit surprising for them. And the fact that an Imperial Officer of the Japanese Army was among the two made the marines wary. Besides, the only reason they hadn't open fire on them was because Nikolai shouted "Dempsey!" at Polonsky before he fainted, and they needed answers about his ware bouts.

"Perhaps we shourd try waking the Russian another way Richtofen?" Takeo suggested. Richtofen sighed and gently set Nikolai on the ground again. "I'm rather surprise zat his bottles of Vodka veren't crushed under ze weight" The Nazi said with amusement. Grunting Richtofen got on his feet and turned his attention to the marines and Zoidius.

"Vell, either zhose people came back in time, or Dempsey is younger." He said pointing a finger at Polonsky.

"Wait, hold on a second here!" Miller interrupted a hand rubbing his forehead as he tried to figure out what the hell was going on. "You three know Dempsey? The Tank Dempsey, the marine that went missing in 43?" Roebuck asked, more out of interest of how they knew the legendary marine.

"Ja, Dempsey vas vith us sense 1943, but he sacrificed himself so zat ve could escape more than two days ago." Richtofen replied. He then looked at Polonsky with a critical eye, he knew Dempsey for a long time and by now he would have said something insulting to him.

"You are not Dempsey. Are you American?" Takeo asked Polonsky. He then carelessly rested his assault rifle on his shoulder. Polonsky frowned at Takeo. He didn't like the Jap; the look he was now giving him was enough to prove that. But Takeo didn't seem to mind, or notice.

"No. I'm not." He finally answered through gritted teeth.

"I see." Takeo snorted looking unimpressed. "And what brings you Americans to this prace?" He firmly asked Roebuck.

"That's classified."

"Bah, zhey vere most likely captured." Richtofen said with a dismissive wave of his gloved hand. "Just like Dempsey vas and ve still have to find out about zhose strangely furred creatures."

Takeo face palmed himself in the face in frustration while Richtofen seemed to stand there looming over Nikolai innocently. "Just a few seconds…" Takeo thought as he began counting down the numbers in his head. A few seconds later, Richtofen widened his eyes in realisation and began cursing in German.

"Scheiße! I've forgotten all about him!" Turning Richtofen grabbed an unconscious Nikolai by the shoulder and began shaking him frantically while yelling at him to "wake up" at the same time. "Leave me alone mother, I want to stay in bed…" Nikolai complained, much the amusement of the marines. Takeo merely allowed a small yet unnoticeable smirk to appear on his lips as he watched Richtofen shout at Nikolai in German again.

"Although that dudes a Nazi, you have to admit, him trying in vain to wake up the Russian is pretty hilarious!" Polonsky laughed. Roebuck and Miller all agreed on this.

"It's you!" Shouted a familiar voice, the five humans and dragon turned and saw Spyro crouched down, wings spread and a vicious snarl on his face. But the snarl itself was aimed at Takeo, Richtofen and Polonsky instead of the others.

"Uh, did I miss something?" Polonsky scratched the side of his head as he gave everyone a confused look.

"Ah, I remember you! You vere zat purple creature zat held Dempsey prisoner." Richtofen snarled as he brought up his MP40 the sub machinegun aiming at the purple dragons head. "Move and I shall kill you mien self!"

"Richtofen, we are not here to make enemies…" Takeo scolded. "Lower your weapon." Rather reluctantly Richtofen slightly lowered his weapon but kept the gun trained on Spyro encase he would do something that he deemed 'threatening'. "Wait a minute… How the hell are you out here?" Roebuck asked with a puzzled stare. Miller and Polonsky both looked at Spyro with a puzzled stare of their own, that was until they realised Spyro never had any sort of magical chain on him. "Serge, he doesn't have a chain…" Miller pointed out rather awkwardly to his superior.

"Wha?" Polonsky stared at Spyro who tilted his head at them. "Dude, did you KNOW you didn't have any kind of chain on you?" Polonsky asked with a look of disbelief. "We could have kicked their asses by now!" He complained.

"You did not." Takeo interrupted causing everyone to look at him and Richtofen who was now pulling up a confused and drunk Soviet onto his feet. "But we three have." He added thumbing the other two behind him with a smug looking grin.

"Oh, what the fuck happened?" Nikolai complained as he held his head in one hand.

"You collapsed Russian. But you'll be fine, mien friend." Richtofen reassured him. "It seems zat Dempsey has a..." He paused trying to find the right words. "Look alike?" Roebuck answered. "Ja, zat vas ze word! But zis one is younger." He pointed at Polonsky as he pulled a cold smile.

"So, Dempsey is still missing?" Nikolai asked.

"It appears so." Replied Richtofen.

"Great." Nikolai said with a sigh. A smile appeared on his face when he realised there was three more soldiers here in this world. And more soldiers meant the enemy would be a lot easer to hunt down. Richtofen after a few moments looked at the three marines and they had two extra dragons at their sides. Realisation appeared on his face; he apparently had the same idea as Nikolai did.

"It seems our numbers…" Nikolai paused for effect. "Are about to work in our favour." An almost menacing smile crept onto his face.

"Why must I have to carry you? This is completely unacceptable!" Volteer complained as he carried Dempsey on his back. Terrador and Cyril were flying side by side the pair while the scouts were flying behind carrying a small group of Cheetahs on their backs. "Because I don't trust you holding on to me in your paws. You were holding me by the legs the last time!" Dempsey shouted back clearly annoyed about the past event. "Just be thankful that I'm the only one you are carrying!" Volteer snorted as Cyril smirked smugly to himself. Terrador shook his head before looking behind him to glance at the rest of the group that were flying steadily behind them. It's been nearly fifteen minutes and they were already a long distance away from Warfang, the dragon city slowly vanishing into the night as they flew onwards.

While they were focusing on keeping their heads up, Dempsey was busy looking down straining his eyes to see anything that would be a village on the ground. But the darkness made things difficult than it already was. Someone or something was out there attacking those who were allied to Warfang and knowing the Dragon Guardians came from Warfang itself, they'd attack them with everything they've got. But they weren't attacked and Dempsey wanted to keep it that way.

"What happened after the building collapsed?" Terrador suddenly asked now looking at a surprised look Dempsey. "What do you mean?" Dempsey replied his surprised face turned into confusion.

"The place Spyro and Cynder found you. What happened after we attacked?" Dempsey looked away thinking of an explanation for the green dragon who merely stared at him patently. There wasn't going to be a good chance of finding another way back to his time so, figuring he had nothing to lose Dempsey decided to tell Terrador what happened.

"Well when you and the other green coloured dragons crashed into the building that I and the others were in, we had managed to turn on the teleporter but one of the green dragons managed to get a lucky hit on the machine we were in—"

"As you said back in Warfang" Cyril interrupted.

"Yeah. It teleported me and the others far into the past, in the 1960s in fact, about twenty five years after World War 2, I think? And in the process I aged a little; three years were taken off me." He inhaled a deep breath as the guardians were listening with interest. "It turns out we were teleported in Germany somewhere, in a city called Berlin"

"Shortly after we appeared the dead rose and attacked us, Nikolai, myself, Takeo and Richtofen the three you encountered in Warfang fought them for weeks. We gathered and bought new weapons for us to fight, with myself getting a CZ-75 and an M-16 assault rifle. Nikolai got an AK-47 assault rifle, very different to the M-16, Takeo gotten an AK74u assault rifle, similar to the 47, but different. Richtofen got an MP40 and two CZ-75s but eventually those were losing their effectiveness." He gritted his teeth when he remembered the bullets barely doing anything to harm the dead.

"Then the four of us were forced to retreat when the undead began getting stronger and harder to kill, so we used a teleporter that was thankfully still in working condition." Dempsey paused, waiting for a question from them. It wasn't much of a surprise when Terrador asked "What happened after you… 'Teleported'?" Dempsey smiled a cocky smile and looked at Terrador firmly. "We came back here." Was his answer. But the smile faded when he continued. "But we were attacked by moles and cheetah's shortly after. Takeo was about to be overwhelmed by them; so using the M-16 I received from Germany I took down as many of the assholes as I could. Takeo managed to escape but I was knocked out from behind and was thrown in the cage you saw me a few days ago. The rest you know." He finished with a sad look.

"So you returned here by accident then?" Volteer finally asked completely awed by Dempsey's story.

"Yep. Complete accident, never intended."

"Somehow I doubt that." Terrador retorted. Dempsey ignored him, before he looked down at the ground below he inhaled heavily as he took in how far the ground was from him, seemed like he was five miles in the sky or more. Then he saw a small fire in a small clearing; from where he was it looked like a tiny dot but from his time in the army he learnt that even something small and looked unimportant could be an enemy position. "Hey Volteer what's the chance that small dot of fire down there could be an enemy campsite?" Dempsey asked. Volteer looked down the moment Dempsey asked the question. He didn't see anything at first but after a few seconds he stopped in mid air causing everyone else behind to stop as well.

"Very little, why?" Volteer asked.

"We should check it out. You never know, we might find something that'll help us. And the ones behind us are straining themselves to keep up." Volteer looked back and saw that they were straining themselves' and they looked like they were going to collapse at any minute. They did get back to Warfang nearly eighteen minutes ago, and they were forced to go out again without any rest and they travelled a long distance in a short amount of time.

Without any sort of warning Volteer went into a nose dive getting a terrified reaction from Dempsey who was holding onto his horns cursing at him. Cyril, Terrador and the others all looked at Volteer with some degree of surprise before they went down and followed his example.

"So, Dempsey is back here?" Cynder asked. She and Samantha were talking one on one for a while now, with Cynder giving all the information she knew about Dempsey from when she found him in Der Riese all the way to his supposed "betrayal" when three other humans, (whom Samantha confirmed was Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen) revealed themselves. Then she told Samantha about Terrador saying they died in Der Riese.

"Nien, those four are alive and are here. This 'guardian' of yours thought he and the others died, but they merely teleported into the past, their past. But someone brought them back here. Who I don't know, but my army is weak in this time, and I am merely going to… 'rebuild and regroup' before I launch another campaign against them." "'Rebuild and regroup'? What does that mean?" Cynder asked. Samantha coldly smiled at Cynder before vanishing before her eyes. Getting on all four Cynder cautiously turned a full circle to see where the girl vanished too. Only she was no longer there.

"I want you to go out and find Dempsey, find him and eliminate him!" Samantha shouted in her demonic voice. "Kill anyone who stands in your way!"

The last thing Cynder saw was a bright light enveloping her entirely.