Chapter 25: Ghost of the Dragon

Arc 1: The Call

Nearly a year and I finally have reached a milestone. After this arc one will finally be done.

Happy Halloween 2016

"It's time. Cross the Streams!" Everyone nearly froze at how strong Derek had said that line.

While most teams worry of a universal ending explosion, given the rights of constant adaptation to technology the Protonix Ghostbusters found a way to cross streams without that risk. The back lass and hard to aim stream was the only thing they usually had to worry about when doing it.

With the cross stream governor automatic and the relay coil, the metal ring on the clear barrel of the main thrower that tells the governor to retract the energy causing a backlash it was hard to cause a problem when crossing.

But when the ring is removed, it can't sensor when the streams are crossing and trigger the defense mechanism. The team had only done this twice in the past 7 years; fighting Shandor when 31 of them with additional 24 Ghostbusters all created a blast that set our entire universe back a year. And Infestation with more powerful packs that combined with what one could assume was every known nuclear weapon on Earth. If Derek was taking off his only means of protection of complete particle reversal in this battle, everyone knew to prepare for the worse.

Quickly plucking off the rings and letting them hang down by a red wire the team fired together as they focused on Malefor's chest and head.

"Spyro!" Derek called out as loud as he could. "Get everyone in a barrier now!"

The dragon was puzzled to say the least. "Why? What are you-" "JUST DO IT!" Derek practically roared at him with only a single glance towards him.

Spyro could honestly see the determined look on the human's eyes. The level that those three words meant was on the same level he had been at when he thought the world was truly going to end. Stepping back some he planted his claws firmly into the ground, flashing his eyes in a glow of light purple as a bubble of rock began forming around the dragons.

Watching Spyro build the wall, Terrador stepped in adding a second layer over it. Cyril forming a sheet of ice between the layers to act as a window as they watched the fight. Volteer fusing lightning on the outside as a first defence if the energy build up was too great.

From what Leo described and Jack had shown on his phone how big/powerful a nuclear explosion was like, they all stacked the layers three times over to prevent from being affected. But there attention was focused more to the humans than their own safety. They were just moments away from what could be the team's very death and yet they stood here; hiding behind a shield, the most powerful dragons on the planet were completely useless right now.

Stepping up closer to the ice window that gave them visual, Cynder looked at each buster with worry. Each one fighting to get ahold of the very same creature that caused her so much trouble. And yet her she was watching them. It made her almost sick to her stomach; watching others sacrifice their lives to save others against something that threatened even their world.

She could feel a lone tear escape from the corner of her eye. And a wing wiping it away.

Spyro stood close by his by friend's side. Draping a wing tightly over his body and pulling her close to his.

"They'll be alright, Cynder. Their stronger than they look." He said to try and reassure her and everything himself.

On the other side of the ice, a mini hurricane was wiping all around the chamber threatening to sweep the team off their feet. Malefor continued to struggled against the higher power the pack's were sending out his as much energy as he replenished.

'How can this be!? These mutations of my own troops are going more than what that gnat Spyro did! I must learn more about them. But first I must grow…'

Looking down to the floor of the chamber, a crack of green light formed just a few feet away from the group; spreading like broken glass as it became wider and wider. The wind instantly picked up as the cracked ground gave way to a massive green and red abyss. Now rock, blobs of slime, Malefor and the Ghostbusters were getting pulled in.

"Portal!" Mike fought to step back.

"I got it!" Quickly switching up his modes, Derek sends his cannon ablaze as it slowly took the power away from the gun. Switching to slime blower Derek quickly sprays the growing area around them weaving it back and forth.

The slime does its job, the edges begin to bubble up as it started to shrink. But as quickly as it did the portal surges in strength making the areas sprayed become part of it again. Aiming at the center Derek tries to dissipate it by its core but the slime holds very little effect in sealing.

"It's not staying closed. Too much energy is feeding through." He swapped back into full stream.

As the room changes from a purple to green color, Malefor; still riddled with all the damage and fighting to control the sudden retake in energy, saw the portal forming under him. He knew where it went. He spent years trying to get out and once he did was through the very same vortex under him now.

It was his ticket out of here.

Twisting his body down so that he went head first his body jolted by its sudden grasp. We was quickly descending at an alarming rate.

"He's trying to escape!"

"Capture Streams, NOW!"

Doing as told everyone hit their third fires making the beams coil roughly around the dragon's body. Halting his progress the team struggled to slow him down.

"Don't let him get through!" As Leo said this, Malefor's tail and legs began to get pulled down into the portal like a ghost would in a trap.

Soon the bottom portion of his entire body became that of a ghostly form with his limbs all vanishing in the vortex. They knew the moment his wings got inside, they would surely lose him.

And Derek knew what to do next. "Everyone deactivate your pulse. And we'll cross the streams with the blast function."

When their fingers left the buttons,that's when they realized they were in deep trouble. Their guns didn't stop firing.

"I can't shut mine down, Derek!" Rachel tried banging on her gun to shut it off.

Leo tried shutting off his pack entirely but the switch didn't respond."Me too!"

Everyone was quickly losing control of their equipment as the streams then started to become entangled together. Flickering for a moment until two or three combined into a larger green beam.

That wasn't all.

Almost every alarm on their packs started blaring as everyone's cores ejected out like to vent. But instead of steam columns of smoke and burning coolant leaked out as the core rods remained a solid red growing in intensity.

Jack, having built most of these packs instantly knew what was up. "The packs are overloading!"

"Too much power!" Leo added trying to pull away his stream. But it refused to budge.

In no time all eight streams soon overlap and merged into a massive green and red beam that looked like it would come out of the Death Star impacting the Dark Lord. The room then takes on a much darker green color outmatched by the portal as the energy viens if the dragon's body ignite with power.

"N-No!" Malefor roared. Not holding but the pain he felt of his body getting torn to pieces atom by atom.

The team weren't handling this well either. Their packs were producing unbelievable heat that threatened to light them into human torches. But they couldn't turn back now; it was either risk Malefor getting away, or the destruction of all life. In everyone's minds that question rang like church bells on Christmas.

Then a familiar whirl started to build up. They knew what this meant. It was that burst of power seen in the 1984 movie that launches the cross point causing a total nuclear blast. Fear began to grow between them all as their throwers shook more violently in their grasp.

"Go!, Go!, Get out of here!" Derek yelled as a flash of light went through their guns and up the stream. Everyone was able to cut their streams away and try to duck and cover. Running as far as they could from the blast.

Derek however didn't move. He didn't have time to react when the loss of power made the beam explode with the energy surge going out the end into Malefor. For a second nothing happened; but then a massive fireball erupted from the dragon in all directions.

Realizing what this was, the dragons quickly sealed the ice over with rock and ducked down. The sound of a thousand armies marching on every inch of the barrier filled their ears as they held on tightly.

With what a nuclear blast could be, the entire chamber is engulfed with a red fire shooting through every space it could get out of. Tunnels became lava tubes in seconds from the sheer hear while the tower of energy erupted up out of the top. Blasting rock that fell to the ground below, the ball raced up the length of the mountain destroying the snow cap and unleashing its full power.

Crystalline

From the city of Crystalline, work on the clean up was just about wrapping up. Most of the citizens had come out of hiding when the all clear of threats was announced.

Sitting at the open path of what Kinh Redstone now called the Valley of Ghosts, wanting to have a way of thanking the team by naming this land after the Ghostbusters, had his eyes locked on the mountain range he knew they were at.

"Lord Redstone," turning around the king saw Wave walking up to him. He was about to say something but a bright flash of light caught his, Redstone and the entire city's attention.

BOOOOOOOM

All eyes now focused to the fireball bellowing from the mountain. The light so bright that it dwarfed the Sun like it was a candle in the open desert.

Redstone knew it wasn't volcanic. He and his family weren't called Redstone for anything. But when the shockwave hit, everyone and thing were blasted back some feet trying to hold on. As quick as it came, it left. Leaving the city now a mess again just like after the battle.

But it wasn't just Crystalline. All around the world did its inhabitants feel some kind of effect from the blast.

Earth dragons everywhere screamed in agony as if the world itself just blew up. Forests all around jolted back by the wind knocking trees loose and causing mass hysteria for the wild life. Anyone in the air at that moment would hear a faint ringing for a moment until a sharp electric charge surged through their bodies. Some weaker to its effects lost all control of themselves dropping out of the air like flies.

Mountain

After what felt like hours, in truth only lasted 16 seconds, the rumbling had stopped.

The dragons all looked to each other if the latter would have something to say. Once the barrier was carefully dropped, with avoiding rock that had landed on it, their eyes were meet with the glow of faint sunlight and devastation. The entire chamber was in recognisable, having nearly tripled in size all around with the walls still shearing hot. Holes that lead into the maze of tunnels were now exposed to the world with the top of the room now sitting at the exact same spot as the Malefor and the team were at.

Then it hit them. They were gone.

Cynder scanned over the area. Letting her shadow go into the deep cracks to find anything. "Guys!? Where are you?!" she began hopping from one place to another.

"Is anyone there?!" Spyro shouted climbing over the collapsed pile.

The guardians didn't hesitate to follow. Swiftly they started pulling rocks away from where they hoped the team wasn't. Terrador took charge of smashing much larger boulders so that the others just brushed clear with their tails. Flying over to Spyro Cynder looked at her friend with worry. None of her elements could sense any of the team members.

Not wanting to accept the possible outcome, Spyro took in a deep breath and shouted. "ANYONE, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

"Here…" A weak rasp got their attention. Spinning around they all watched with wide eyes as Rachel limped from around a rock pile. Her indigo suit was now literally moments away from falling apart with dirt covering most of her. Several red spots were forming on her pants that was evident of something broken. But she wasn't alone. Behind her barely standing was Roger that looked more beaten up than injured but yet had a streak of red coming down his forehead. Behind them both was a barely conscious Ben with with his arms folded over his chest. The left side of his torso was heavily torn apart with several large slashes going across and around his stomach.

"Rachel!" Spyro dashed over in time just before the human could collapse. The human fell over across his back with the weight of her body and pack falling down. Getting a hold of her side the purple dragon slowly twisted her around so that she laid on top of her equipment. The other two limped over taking a seat on a rock across from them.

Right before they could ask anything, Ben sudden sits up from his position looking over to the other side of the room. "DANNY!"

Everyone looks over a in the direction he was facing just in time to see Danny carefully climbing down a large boulder. He looked more exhausted than the others were with his suit covered in a thick layer of dust. On top of of the boulder was Leo preparing to follow the Older Smith's path with Jack holding tightly to his right arm. Both had some what mirrored injuries with Leo trying to not move his left arm as much. Jack's had a long gash leading from his under his ghost badge around his elbow ending just before his glove. His right leg however was bent in the wrong direction with his thigh facing out and the knee facing inside.

Volteer quickly flies over to the three stretching out his wing for Leo to slide on. He looks up for Jack to join but he just waves the dragon off to deal with the latter. Touching down between the rock and Danny he gently lowers it back down; Leo struggles for a moment to stand but manages to regain his balance holding his arm.

"Thanks…" he looked up to the lightning dragon who nodded. Looking over to the others further away he looked around for a moment. "Mike?"

"Over here." he called walking up to the clearing the dragons sat on during the blast. Like Danny he was more dirty but covered in soot from head to toe. Holding his pistol on his hand he looked over everyone before holstering his weapon.

"Police training. It can do you wonders."

"Yeah figured that much." Danny walked up.

"Leo…" Rachel limped over using Spyro as a support. "What… what the Hell happened?"

Once everyone was gathered around, the head scientist let out a deep breath before carefully sitting on the ground.

"Stage 1 of total protonic reversal. It discharged too early to reach stage 2."

"And what's stage 2?" Roger questioned.

"Well…" Leo looked around the destroyed chamber. "This place wouldn't be here. Everything within a hundred miles would be gone and anything past that will suffer from what would be like nuclear fallout."

"In a sense, it would be like Hiroshima right now."

"Yep…"

Everyone shutters. Thoughts of the blast compared to the last two times came running back with how big this one was. It took more for the dragons to think that such explosion was possible to be made by these eight humans before them. But they had to do a recount. There was only seven of them.

"Where's Derek?" Cynder asked with panic as the dominant thought. Everyone had thought that at any moment the human would suddenly pop up. But as time past their fears grew.

"Derek!" Leo yelled. Quickly bringing out his Pke meter.

"Derek!" Roger called dashing over to the center rock pile where he last saw his leader. Everyone, even those injured, scattered around the large mound shouting his name.

Even with a broken arm Leo jumped from rock to rock holding his meter with his good arm. Jumping over a slope he lands in a depression formed in the pile. He knew this was right where the portal was; rock must've fallen in some amount before it closed. He was the last one to bail when Derek told them. If memory served him correctly, and with the Pke going crazy as he was on target, he was standing right where Derek should be.

"Here!" He yells as everyone swarmed over. "His signals weak. Meter's putting the depth at least 23 feet." His face paled even through the dirt.

Without much thought, hands and claws quickly started the work of digging out his body. Deeply praying that he was still alive.

Dream Realm

Derek's POV

Holy crap… that hurt too much more than I expected.

And my eyes… good God how am I not blind by this job yet?

I tried to move, but my legs decided not to comply with my bodies command. I could feel my right arm, but my left felt like it wasn't there at all. My body honestly did feel like I was smashed under a giant rock.

Now I bet you're wondering; Derek, just get to the point. You're already breaking the fourth wall for what most would think will be the unteenth time now. Well I'll tell you why, because I want to, my body hurts and my ass itches really bad. And right now, I'm lying down on something unbelievably comfortable and definitely not with the others. I try moving, sitting up from the flat position I'm in. But my body refused to budge.

"Ah! You're finally awake." A voice said walking up from my left. When my eyes finally decided to open they were met with a orange light that a mass of candles could make.

Instead of walls of rock all I saw was the smooth grains of carved wood over top of me. There was a definite smell like someone using a high level of sweeteners that did help me forget of that god awful smell in the chamber. Using my good hand I try wiping the exhaustion from my eyes, the remembrance of the voice coming near instantly hit and I turned to my left.

"Hello again, Derek." The Chronicler said face to face with me.

"GAH!" I jumped from my position. Nearly falling off the side of whatever I was laying on that sent jolts of pain through my body.

Hopping to my feet I got into a defensive pose. That's when I realize I didn't have any of my equipment. Pack, rifle, the only things left was my sensor equipment. But that wasn't anything compared to the pain that came back after my brief adrenaline rush. I felt my legs lock up like ice nearly making me fall over. Using what I could assume was a bed I bit my lip as I tried to support myself. When I actually got about halfway on it I looked back up to the dragon. I had to wipe my eyes to even think of how the gray dragon before me is now literally my size.

"Why are you so small?" I asked without much thinking. I could hear him chuckling in what I could tell was amusement.

"My young fellow, I have not changed. But you, on the other hand, have."

That's when being a smart guy I actually took into account my surroundings. I was in the same room me and my team had first arrived in the dragon world. But unlock before, everything seemed smaller. Even that caldera from last time look like it was a normal iron pot other than something the size of a house. And even things like the books that encircled us seemed bigger than the one Leo first had.

"*Sigh* Please tell me I'm not dead."

"Afraid not. But you are currently buried under 18 tons of stone from destroying the mountain."

My jaw just dropped from that. "Well… that's just settling." I try pushing off the bed. Feeling some movement return to at least my right side.

"As to why you're my size," Chronicler continued. "I thought it would be more appropriate for us to conversate easier face to face other than having you nearly break your neck each time to speak."

Well thanks for that.

"So, next question." I finally get to my feet. "Why am I here?"

"Excellent question. Come." He turns around heading towards a large doorway on the other side of the room.

Looking at him then my leg, I just shrug and decide to wing it. Moving around the head of the bed I take a few steps away from the bed and let go. Not having fallen on my face yet, I slowly make my way over to where the dragon was waiting. Still feeling my entire left half of my body not the best. I wonder if this is what it was like when Peter Griffin got that stroke in a old Family Guy episode.

Once I was beside him, still feeling very uneasy about the height change. It was hard to think that a old dragon like him, probably the same size as Terrador who compared to us is huge. Then Spyro, Cynder, and every other dragon around their age was from our waist to maybe a head taller was okay to be around. But this, just wait until Leo hears about this.

"I do suppose you're wondering why I brought you here."

"Well that would be a good place to-" before I could finish I felt a way to heavy obect collide with my stomach. "-start…'"

It was a book. A big book compares to the ones on the shelves. But I didn't care about how big it was; not the design or text. But the symbol.

The Icarea Mandala symbol. The same one me and Leo made 3 years ago when I started getting control of my body again after getting over my possession.

"Where did you get this?" I asked dropping anything else.

"Remember when I said I keep track of everything." I nod. "I decided to gather information on you and your team to see if there was something l could help aid you with."

"Then why is it covered in ectoplasm?" I lifted my now sticky hand.

"That was something I was hoping to ask you. You see, when Ignitus found the book, it was heavily coated in black slime. We tried what we could but we has to result to a more practical means." he points over to a table in the corner. Sitting on top was the distinct green and gray body of the Mark 5 Slime Blower.

I go to ask where he got that, "Don't worry, I merely duplicated it. And I must say, while I know it's not your most advanced piece of technology it's quite impressive."

Damn right it's impressive. Took nearly 5 years to get right. And all it took was a oil company to spend about 30 million dollars on us. Good times.

"After we used the device and accessed the book, we… are terribly sorry." his voice lost that full of wisdom tone. Now in a more regretful area. If this book told our story, then he saw some unbelievable things.

"Don't be. That's our history and you didn't have anything to do with it. Its our fate we shaped, and were still going now."

Chronicler actually cracked a smile. I could tell just by the way he was that such a gesture was rare for even him. "Thank you. But back on topic, I've been heavily interested in this symbol." He flips the book back all the way to the cover.

"For the most time, it talks about you and your team investigating it heavily of how it connects to not only your world. But yet you know little to what its for."

*sigh* " In truth we barely know enough about it. We have theories, but no way to test them until now."

"How so?"

Bringing the book over to the table I broke out a blank piece of paper. Finding something to write with, a bottle of ink and a huge feather, I drew out the main rings. "From when I first got possessed, I had this voice and visions of this complex similar to what a gyrosphere is like. But when I first put it to paper it looked sorta like the 2009 video game mandala that went all across New York City. Thing was none of the nods matched up. So me and Leo for the time used what I saw to draw this." I step aside to show him the more advanced version. It was, if not better than the one before the Shandor event years ago.

"This was the design before our world faced its first major event; Ivo Shandor."

"During the time in the library, you spoke of him much."

"Indeed. When the others came, we started looking back into what the system was for." Turning back I began drawing in the other rings that made up the system. "Each world experienced the same Pke burst ours did before they entered our world with entities some God like came through. What I don't understand is why you want to know so much."

Chronicler didn't answer. Instead he turned around heading towards another door. He didn't show signs of turning back to me so instinct told just to follow. But I paused, looking back at the book before me.

Running a hand across the leather like cover, my mind drifted to what its pages held. Strangely some parts were mark with different metal. The covers held a bronze like shine with one page gold, another silver, one that I could tell was ruby red and another that was a deep neon purple. What secrets did it hold? If it told of the very moment we started busting, maybe even about the others worlds we got prepare even better than what he had during Infestation. We would have alerted nations, established teams of at least 20 on standby in every city to eliminate any chance something like that could happen again.

But, something told me not to. That I would find out what felt like sooner than later.

The Chamber

No POV

"I found him!" Cynder yelled throwing the remaining rock away. Leo and Rachel carefully descend the massive pit the group had dug just to reach him.

Clearing more ruble Derek's protonix pack, surprisingly still running with the revive system activated, came into view as his arms and legs started to get free. Using all her strength, Cynder pulled away the last chunk that pinned his right arm and head. She goes to move him but Rachel quickly stops her.

"Wait! He could have a broken back or neck. We need to be very careful." Looking at her friends almost dead like form spiralled on the ground. "Terrador, can you lift the ground underneath him a bit higher?"

"I'll try." Focusing his element through the piles of broken ground he looked down at Derek to carefully form a platform to raise the injured human.

When the ground started to rumble a little, everyone's breath caught in their throats making Terrador even more nervous. But once it reached a few inches, it soon easily slid out like a loose jenga block. Keeping his hardened focus, the platform lifts higher into the air out of the pit. Following his gaze as he brought it over to the clearing outside. Once it touched down with a heavy thud, everyone swarmed over to Derek's unconscious body.

Rachel and Cynder were the first to his side with the latter quickly holding her fingers to his neck.

"I got a pulse!" Her medical training kicked into full gear. Instantly she started removing anything that would hinder more damage to him. First starting with the protonix pack. Reaching down she goes to unclip the straps from the connection point on the frame.

"No, wait!" Leo yelled making her stop. Running down the mound with his arm flopping to the side he skids down beside her. "The pack might he the only thing keeping him alive at the moment. The shields must of taken the brunt of the blast and the pack itself prevented him from being completely crushed."

"So what do we do?" Cynder asked want to just rip it off him.

Leo with his good arm carefully reach behind Derek's neck hitting the revive switch. The pack let's out a deep groan like a load was just taken off it as all the lights flickered off at once. The power cells soon piled together with the monitor glowing signifying a complete system reboot. Once both run their start up cycles the cyclotron vents out for a moment before humming back to life. All 8 cores start growing in brightness as they cycle again.

Then, in a complete sign of utter relief, Derek took in a sharp breath as he coughed a few times.

"Now, carefully take off the pack. He might still have internal injuries." Heeding Leo's words Rachel reaches down popping the shoulder and kidney straps off. Taking the pack be its sides she lifts the 200 pound backpack (when powered fully like it is the weight drops to around 112 to 70 pounds. When in revive it becomes around 120 and complete power shut off will drop it to 200+. Those things aren't light you know.) off his back. Carefully pulling the equipment attached on said straps from under him as she finally got it off.

Pulling it over to the side, both she, Leo, Cynder and Spyro all took one side of his body and slowly turned him around. Once he was on his back, they finally got to see the extent of the damage. The entire front of his suit was badly scorched with some of the fabric that made up the jumpsuits burned away straight to the skin. The right side of his face was drenched in blood that at the angle he was made it seep over to the other side. His right arm was bent the wrong way with his hand still clenched tightly as if he still had his thrower in hand. His legs almost looked like pretzels with on top of the other in a worse pose. Blood spots were everywhere growing at a frightening rate.

"Oh My God…" Rachel brought her hands to her mouth. Tears nearly breeching past her eyes. The rest of the team soon gathered around their broken leader fearing getting to close would cause him to just jump up like a Walker and attack them.

The dragons were actually speechless. There eyes scanned over the encircled team. Shock turned into disbelief that what had just happened; that these 8 beings, despite what they've seen since the beginning, had survived a battle with Malefor and an explosion that they felt could rival the belt of fire.

"It's not the worst he's been through." All their eyes fell onto Leo. The scientist knowing what their reactions would be slowly turned to face them. "After his possession and Infestation, he's gotten pretty beaten up before. At of these bow three times this would possibly rank as number 2."

Shock retook their minds. Paling at the thought of what he, and even the others had gone through before even coming to their world.

Volteer and Cyril both looked to Terrador. Wanting to know what they should do now. Looking to his comrades, then down to Spyro and Cynder who were both trying to tend to Derek's injured form. "Let's go… we've done what we can here today." His eyes fell upon the broken team. "For now we need to rest for I doubt this will be the last time we see of Malefor."

Lowering their wings so that the team could climb up, while needing the guardians to push them the final length up they all sat as comfortably as possible.

Spyro at the moment help against Derek's position on Cynder's back having his arms tied around the base of her neck. Leo insisted on taking the proton pack but Spyro had already slung the device over his back. Grunting from the additional 200 pounds h looks back to everyone.

"We set?" Everyone nods. "Let's go home." Having to put a little more power to his wings Spyro lifted off the ground. Twisting his body he steadily climbs through the air to the open hole. Cynder follows close by with much swifter movements. Wanting to get Derek to Crystalline as soon as possible. The guardians all took a massive leap forward gliding upwards before giving a few good flaps to exit the chamber.

Once they finally broke from the stone, their eyes all focused on the direction back towards Crystalline. Thanking God and Ancestors that this was over for now.

Did think I should of combined the last chapter with this but it didn't feel right to me and I wanted to finish with a good 25.

The case of this chapter was to show the after effects of what can happen when the Protonix Ghostbusters would do what would be the second to last case scenario of crossing the streams. Unlike other teams where it can either completely destroy the bad guy or not do anything fully refers to why the team was more focused on capturing Malefor other than imprisoning or destroying him. As to why Derek's with the Chronicler isn't because he's dead, it's just to move on what's to be seen later.

So with the bases of everything in this story technically covered, I can now progress into new territory and history for the team while working mos now on get Broken Reality going more.

Until next time in Arc 2: Ghosts and Dragons