Chapter 2 - What Now?

Two days later...

"Could you help me here?" asked Pyrox. "Handling a bunch of one-year-olds is easier said than done!"

"You're telling me this," mused Hysperia.

Pyrox grabbed Cendia before she could walk into the forest. He snatched Ipsil out of the air as he was trying to fly into the canopy. Pyrox blocked Ninilus and Cruor from exiting the door.

Pyrox said, "You are not leaving the house today."

Ninilus whined, "Please, Dad?"

"No. Today everyone is panicking, and I will not let you go out and get caught up in this."

Ipsil stomped. "Yous panigging," he said. "I wanna go out!"

Hysperia said, "If your dad tells you a story, will you stay in?"

All four hatchlings stopped fussing and sat in a semicircle around Pyrox.

Pyrox sighed. He said, "Once upon a time, there was a dragon who lived next to a portal..."

XXXXXXXXXX

"I am calling this meeting to order in Ember's place to figure out what to do about this Fire Virus," said Spyro.

Recently, several people had been disintegrating for seemingly no reason, and the citizens of the Enduring Valley had nicknamed this event the "Fire Virus."

I asked, "Why isn't Ember here?"

Spyro said, "She laid eggs two days ago."

"Aww, that's great!" said Cynder.

The mood was elevated a bit, but then Spyro said, "First, what info do we have on the Fire Virus?"

Blade said, "Practically none. All we know is that it is something that causes intelligent species to disintegrate, and we don't even know if it's a virus!"

"All right, then, what do we tell the people?" asked Spyro.

Lightning said, "We should tell the people that we are looking into it, they should stay calm, and to not call it a Fire Virus."

"Any other suggestions?" asked Spyro.

Everybody looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Meeting's over," said Spyro.

XXXXXXXXXX

The singular robot climbed out of the ocean. His fried electronics sparked from the absorbed lightning, gallons of seawater, and two years in a state of disrepair. Each mechanized step was followed by a screech and a clunk as the electronics and clockwork in its body forced it onwards. It had never needed to fix itself, so it didn't know how.

The Frost Beast shook the saltwater off of his armored plates. He flopped down with his back to a tree in the now-lush landscape.

He sighed. This was not what he would have expected to happen to him if Primus was destroyed.

XXXXXXXXXX

A robot jumped from boulder to boulder like a grasshopper. It stood up on two legs and said to the dragon front of it, "Hello. Blade wants to gather information on everything here. Would you mind explaining the capabilities of the Ruby Of the Open Wound?"

Ignitryx turned around and snapped. Many translucent blue pages of information appeared in midair. The robot scanned the pages and said, "Thank you."

The robot then jumped onto a tree and into the forest. It got a signal from the Nexus. It activated its messaging system.

"Dang," it said. "I lost track of time."

It dashed through the forest until it almost hit a log cabin and scrambled to avoid hitting it.

"Ah, Cricket-43, there you are," said a voice from its right.

The robot turned around and said, "Reporting for duty, sir."

"This isn't a duty, Cricket-43," said Pyrox.

Something changed in Cricket-43's programming. "It would be a shame if it was," it said. "Your kids are so cute."

If Pyrox didn't have his mask on, Cricket-43 would have expected him to look surprised. That particular piece of programming had always been an unfixable glitch.

Cricket-43 and Pyrox walked in.

Pyrox's kids shouted, "Uncle Cricket!" and jumped on top of him.

Pyrox somehow seemed to look amused through his mask as his kids knocked Cricket-43 over.

He whispered, "Nexus, initiate plan C-2."