Chapter 36 Curiouser and Curiouser

Character Sparks

After leading DC to Malafor, Sparks watched the battle with horror as his friends were beat about by Malafor, surprise as Cynder knocked Spyro out of the darkness, and sheer terror as K ripped the flesh from Malafor's body, snapped his back, and thew Malafor onto Sparks. Sparks and Malafor hit the lava which didn't bother Sparks, Malafor, however, hit the lava he was previously resting in and exploded in a storm of light and fire. When the storm died down Sparks opened his eyes, he was staring straight into the cruel, yellow eye of Malafor, Sparks froze.

"I can see you," Malafor said, "how you followed me here, why I can't affect you, and why I can hear you, I don't know but I will make you suffer once I find your friends again."

"You can't hurt me," Sparks asked confused, "wait here where is here…Oh, that isn't good." Malafor snapped at Sparks but some protecting element stopped the spectral dragon's teeth from tearing into Sparks' ghostly body. Unable to bring pain and hurt to Sparks Malafor roared at him and stalked over to a pillar that grew out of the ground. Sparks and Malafor were on a, gray, desolated plateau of stone, it occurred to Sparks that it was strangely cold, considering all the descriptions of the place, and distinctly lacking in tortured souls. It also occurred to Sparks that he was in a very unique position, invulnerable to Malafor's attacks he could try and convince the demon dragon about the more serious threat, the return of Dark and Despair. "Wait wouldn't they want Dark and Despair to return," he thought, "no not even the Primes would want that it would mean the complete destruction of their power, might as well be useful as K.. kept.. telling.. me. Did he plane this, No way not possible, but then how was I able to read the restricted parts of his mind, K you set me up," Sparks yelled into the blackness! Sparks thought about his predicament a little longer, First K let him into his mind and practically invited him to snoop around, second K kept telling him to be useful if nothing else, third K threw Malafor onto him so he would get caught up in the torrent of Malafor's soul as it returned to hell, fourth K gave Sparks immunity from Malafor. "Well K you wanted me to convince Malafor, I guess the only way out of here is by doing that," Sparks went off to find Malafor and to think of some choice words to have ready when K brings him back. Malafor was easy to find, follow the smashed pillars and the growling, "here I go," Sparks thought as he caught up to Malafor. "Malafor," he said, "I know we aren't exactly friends and your probably mad at K, but he sent me here to tell you about Dark and Despair."

"What do you know of dark and despair," Malafor growled at him swatting at him with one massive paw.

"Not dark and despair, Dark and Despair, they have returned, and if they haven't told their puppets about it then that means they plan to over throw them."

"Now you are rambling," Malafor hissed heading for a dilapidated city, "idiot."

"Look them up I know you have somewhere to hold records even demons need to keep track of who is more powerful than who," Sparks pressed, that got him a blast of dark energy that flowed around his shield.

Malafor glared at him in frustration before storming off to the ruins of the city, Sparks followed as best he could. The city was filled to the brim with demons, demons that looked none to happy that Malafor was back. A large demon, goat-like in appearance but standing on two feet and covered in glowing glyphs, approached Malafor.

"I challenge you impostor, you are no Prime," the demon shouted as it charged Malafor. Malafor blasted it with his dark energy, the demon clutched at the hole in its chest as the body fell to the ground the bodiless demon fled to a dark place in the city.

"Hunt that one down unless any of you want to face the same fate," Malafor ordered, "bring him to me in the catacombs." Malafor noticed sparks following him, "get away from me bug," he snapped.

"Not until you look up Dark and Despair," Sparks replied growing bolder with his shield still intact.

"Change that bring the insolent scum to me in the record room," Malafor roared to the demons as they hunted for their defeated leader, Malafor then grabbed Sparks in a paw and flew off toward a hole in the ground, Sparks felt a lot of heat coming from the hole but that didn't deter Malafor, he dived right in and flew over the lava streams and the causeways over them to a building made out of bones, dragon and otherwise. Sparks was thrown into the building as Malafor walked in. "Ok, find these records of Dark and Despair then," Malafor hissed, "if it will shut you up then do it."

Sparks looked around and saw two volumes glowing through the outline of the other books in the building, he flew towards them. "These two," Sparks said, "I could tell you what you will find in them but you wouldn't believe me, so you need to read them yourself."

Malafor whipped at Sparks with his tail as he retrieved the books, glancing at the seal on the covers, Sparks watched Malafor's look change from anger to surprise. "How do you know about this," Malafor asked.

"I got stuck in K's mind and read it from his memories, though how he would have memories of this book or any of this I don't even want to guess at."

Malafor glared at Sparks then opened the book about Dark, a few pages in Malafor mumbled something that sounded like, "The drools their wings."

"What," Sparks asked?

"You already know," Malafor growled, "stay silent while I finish these books, go play in a lava stream or something, you'll know when I am through reading."

Sparks looked into Malafor's eyes and decided to leave him alone, not that he doubted that the shield would protect him he keep telling himself but he still went out of the room. Sometime after Sparks had left Malafor to his reading, a group of demons came walking up to the building, Sparks ducked back inside and flew up to a corner, the demons had the goat-like one who tried to fight Malafor in the city. Malafor looked up at the demons, "good bring him here," he said. The demons obeyed dragging the goat demon behind them.

"Demon," Malafor said, "what is your name?"

"Axunz," the demon replied.

"Who do you serve," Malafor continued.

"I serve you Prime," the demon said reluctantly.

"I have a need for ones like you," Malafor said, "you take risks without hesitation, I will have you take even more risks as payment for my trouble, you will go to the other Primes and show them these books I will have them copied so you can leave a copy with each of my brothers."

"Yes Axunz will do this for you Master," the demon said.

"Good," Malafor replied, "let him go, and start copying these books, three copies," he said to the restraining demons.

"So have I convinced you," Sparks asked.

"No, but you have risen a little in my standings by bringing these books to my attention," Malafor said, with slightly less contempt in his voice, "What does K want us to find I wonder, he probably didn't tell you that he used to be a Prime did he? Maybe he wants us to find the same document that caused him to become what he is. As for you," Malafor continued grabbing Sparks in a paw, again, and stuffing him into a lantern then locking the door, "I will want to have you nearby so as to keep an eye on you, don't think I have forgotten how you helped Spyro and Cynder save their miserable world, I know how tricky you can be." With that Malafor stormed off leaving a very confused Sparks stuck in a lantern overlooking the demons transcribing the two books, led by Axunz.

Character Doug

After canceling Tyreal's spell to teleport him somewhere, Doug refocused on his war against Baal and Mephisto's minions, he had taken over 2/3 of the Ark and was facing fierce defense from the last third. Doug had stretched out to fill the tunnels under the Ark that he controlled, Cortana had landed the super carrier in a zone he controlled and was reinforcing his Flood minions with Marines and Elites, she had moved from the carrier to the systems on the Ark itself and was running a full force command of the non-Flood units, she also was scanning the space around the Ark for several light years watching for the rest of the fleet either Covenant or Human/Elite. Doug had to admit she was very concise even for an AI, hitting the defenders of Baal's lair where they were weak and drawing them out of their strong points, her directions were practically holding the stalemate together. Doug had no doubt that if the beast and undead horde was able to get out their fight for control of the Ark, even with his domination of it, would be futile. His part in the fight was keeping warriors in the field, taking the corpses of Human, Elite, Demon, or whatever he could find and turning them into Flood who reinforced his and Cortana's positions, along with as many true Flood, Flood that were purely made of the biomass that was Doug, he could spare and his massive Kracken-like tentacles. Their forces were balanced, even if the Primes' had the use of magical abilities, but so did Doug to some extent that was considerable when weighing a battle and he had used it to some success against even the more powerful of the Primes' minions.

"Doug," Cortana spoke through the Ark's communication system, "just finished off a group of undead, see what you can make of the bodies, the coordinates are 25,109, Span Three." The Spans were the six 'arms' projecting from the center of the Ark, each one had its own coordinate system based from the star at the center of the galactic sized ship. Doug sent directions to a cluster of spoors to investigate the bodies, undead were harder to use but some of the fleshier ones, zombies and the like, were really tough to kill off once infected by the Flood, Doug acquired eight new Flood zombies and two mummies from the defeated undead. "We could use some tentacles at 32,67, Span One," Cortana said.

"Got it," Doug replied sending his mind to the designated area where a group of Elites and Flood were fighting against a group of corpse eating creatures and Flesh Spawn. The corpse eating creatures were shaped like a slug for the most part but walked on four legs and had a squid-like mouth part that pulled in the bodies, that Doug used for solders, partly digested it then spewed the acid soaked contents at their adversaries, these creatures were mostly brown with some black and red. The Flesh Spawn were gangly beasts, that reproduced by spewing out of their mouths smaller worm-like versions of the parent that, after consuming enough meat, grew into a duplicate of its spawner and restarted the cycle, they also were mostly brown with a few red and black variants and the occasional brackish-green leader. One or two of the Spawners were usually a difficult force to deal with, but there were four helping the corpse eaters, their prodigy were running rampant through the Flood ranks, ripping the soft bodies to shreds with their razor sharp fangs, the Elites were faring a little better protected by their energy shields but several of them had fallen as well. Doug slammed into the corpse eaters first, then the Spawners, at the cost of a few feet of tentacle. With the destruction of the main support for the 'worms' the Elites and Flood were able to bring the lesser beasts under control, Doug had some spoor forms take over the dead bodies that remained.

"Doug surface," Cortana said, "118, 03, Span 4, lots of Covenant got three heavy marine squads pinned down they have a scorpion tank and I need it free to engage other parts of the Span mind helping out?"

"How many flood do you need, I have 200 flying forms in the area," replied Doug.

"That will do then," Cortana replied.

Doug sent in his flying Flood, bird-like in appearance they were basically a flying needle gun, comprised of a long tube that constructed and fired arrow-like needles, two wings and a stabilizing tail the flying forms could even take out armored aircraft, if they needed to. Against the flesh of Covenant Brutes and Grunts they would be very effective. Two of the Sentinels walked into the teleporter room from the hall, marched into a teleporter Doug had readied for their use, and teleported to a position near the shield building that DC had deactivated. "Cortana," Doug said, "any projections on when K might return, he is the only one who can actually end this fight."

"Anywhere between three seconds to three months," Cortana replied, "we can hold out for at least six months if the Covenant fleet doesn't show up and if the Human-Elite fleet shows up then almost indefinitely at this rate."

"How long until we arrive at the black hole," Doug continued weighing the probabilities.

"At this speed 10,000 years," Cortana replied, "we have plenty of time."

"We will need it, if K's plan is going to work," Dough thought to himself then replied, "send for the Human fleet I have the long-range communications back online." Fortunately K left the wiring mostly intact, otherwise the sentinels, the flying machines that maintained the Ark and the Halo rings, would be another week repairing it.

Cortana was silent for a moment then responded, "done they will be here withing the week, but that might be too slow I just picked up slip-space signals from the Covenant fleet, only three but if they bring back news of the battle here then we will be needing all the reinforcements we can get, wait got a huge amount of ships entering scanning range now, I don't believe it there from Serra, Patching them through, you want to take it or should I?"

"You have this," Doug replied, "see what they are here for, but let me view the communication on the screen."

"Done," she replied then to the man whose figure appeared on the screen, "this is Cortana we are receiving you."

"Cortana really," the man said, "good I knew the histories were true, I am Admiral Brian Fenix, descendant of Marcus Fenix, we have been preparing for this for a long time, Ma'am, Serra is here to help in honor of Marcus, also we know he will be here sometime after we arrive, according to the prophesy about him and Delta."

"So five hundred years of time go by on Fenix's home world where someone creates a legend of his life that now will have him meeting some descendant of his, and brings help to us when we need it, This smells of K's doing," Doug said to Cortana.

"I know," she replied through the Arks private comm channel then to Brian Fenix, "we would be glad to accept your help, here are some friendly landing zones for your ships."

"Thank you Ma'am," Brian replied as his fleet of nearly two hundred ships went in to land, "my command is yours, I'll meet you when we land, also is there a Doug, he was mentioned as being very helpful in the prophesies."

"Put me through," Doug said then to Brian, "I am here our forces are holding control of two thirds of the Ark as we speak but barely your arrival is timely indeed, welcome to the fight Serra."

"The Great One," Brian whispered in aw of Doug, "We will not fail you."

"I doubt that K would have sent you if you were going to," Doug replied.

"K who is that," Brian asked puzzled.

"Most likely the one who started the Prophesies," Cortana commented, "but when he and Delta return you can meet him yourself."

"I'll take your word for it," Brian replied, "were are landing now."

Doug let Cortana meet Brian at the landing site, her being able to project a hologram of herself out onto the Ark via the sentinels, apparently the fact that she was an AI got lost in the histories, but Cortana soon had it sorted out. B. Fenix's men proved to be very helpful, their weapons ranging from machine guns and flame throwers to rocket and grenade launchers were a fresh point that the Primes' minions had to find a way to deal with, B. Fenix keep twenty ships in orbit around the Ark in case of Covenant scouts arriving to check in on Baal and his progress. The Serran ships were much different from the Covenant or Human ships, where smooth curves or bulky angles were distinct in the latter twos construction the Serran ships were constructed like massive squids, a main body part that was the living space in the ship and long tentacles flowing from the back. It was the tentacles that housed the weapons of the Serran ships, and in this way were superior to the Human or Covenant variants because they could fire at many different targets with the same capacity from every angel the ship might be at in relation to the tentacles. To Doug the strangest weapon that the ships had were two huge tentacles that had massive chainsaws on their ends, but considering Fenix's lancer he saw where the inspiration cam from, and decided that they could probably open up a ship like he could a corpse. But the most impressive thing about the Serrians was that one out of fifty was a paladin, like Fenix.