Quinton gasped for air as he woke up in a cot, he noticed that he was back inside of the ship that brought them to the unknown island. He looked down at his arm and saw that it was completely wrapped in bandages. He noticed that four more cots were surrounding him with his sleeping teammates on them. Not seeing any need to wake them up, Quinton laid back down started to drift back to sleep...
He jumped up to the sound of a rather loud whistle coming from Brick's bed, followed by a rather loud, "Good morning, everyone! I hope you slept well!"
"PUT A SOCK IN IT, BRICK! IT'S SIX IN THE MORNING!"
Jupiter was sitting upwards in his cot at the far side of the room, in a white t-shirt and dark blue flannel pants, his hair messy, eyes with bags glaring at Brick.
"Do you ever shut up?" Phin said, getting up from her cot, dressed in a black tank top and gray flannel pants, looking rather annoyed at both Jupiter and Brick, likely because they were the ones who'd woken her up.
"Why don't you come and make me?!" Jupiter threatened Phin, though it only made her right eye begin twitching in irritation.
Jupiter was then promptly smacked upside the head by Bean, who began to lecture him on how not to wake up in the morning.
Before Jupiter could talk back a loud bell sound flooded the ship and the voice that guided them in the forest spoke
"All personnel exit the ship at this moment"
"What?" Jupiter asked
"The ship is about to revert to its original form. If you do not wish to be crushed to death in the process, I suggest you exit the ship"
"Did it just say crushed to dea-" Jupiter turned to Brick, only to see that he was already outside of the ship
It didn't take long for the ship to start shaking, signaling that the transformation was about to begin. Phin grabbed Quinton and use her speed to carry the both of them out while Bean and Jupiter ran out
After getting a few yards away from the ship Phin turned to Jupiter, who was breathing heavily as he and Bean caught up with her.
"Do you know what it meant by original form?"
"How the heck should I know?"
"You were the one saying that the ship was speaking to you before"
"She hasn't said anything to me since we land here so I don-" Jupiter was cut off by a large roar coming from the direction of the ship.
In the place of the ship was now a large mechanical yellow dragon.
"WHAT THE HECK IS THAT?!" Brick shouted
The dragon's eyes glowed as it let out another roar. After hearing the dragon, Jupiter turned to Quinton.
"She's telling us to go back into the castle"
10 Minutes Later...
After entering the castle, the group found themselves back in the room they made it to the last time they entered before being sent to the forest.
"So what do we do now?" Bean asked
Around the room, blue torches began to light themselves, showing a path past the stairs and further into the castle.
"Woah!" Brick gaped, amazed by the entire castle. It just seemed so . . . magical. It was unreal. For a moment Brick wondered if he'd fallen into a coma and this was all some weird dream.
"I . . . guess we're going that way!" Bean exclaimed as the torches continued to light down the hall in front of them.
They followed the torches in silence for a while, looking around at the castle.
"Hello?" Brick called out as they walked across a sort of bridge. His voice echoed throughout the walls, but nobody answered.
"Hellooo?" he tried again a few minutes later as they walked down some stairs. Still, no answer.
Eventually, the torches stopped lighting in front of a set of metal doors that slid open upon their arrival, revealing a large circular room with what appeared to be a console in the middle of it.
"Hello?" Brick asked again as they entered, Bean in the front of the pack and heading towards the console.
"Where are we?" Jupiter asked, voice low as he looked around.
"It's some kind of control room," Bean guessed, gasping as the console activated. He looked over to see two large cylinder-shaped pods rising from the floor, the smoke surrounding them. Inside seemed to be a figure, but it was hard to make out
Jupiter gasped as another rose next to him, another figure inside.
"Are these guys . . . dead?" Brick asked, poking up from behind the console.
One of the pods lit up, a shimmer dissolving the glass to reveal . . . a dark-skinned woman in a princess dress with blue markings on her face and in the place of her ears were a pair of blue fish-like fins.
The woman gasped, falling out of the pod as she yelled, "father!"
Jupiter quickly moved to catch her in his arms, staring at her in utter disbelief. She stood, still relying on him for support, and stared into his eyes.
Jupiter blushed, smiling, then tilted his head and gave his signature smirk, "hello."
"Who are you?" she asked, looking to the side as she thought, "where am I?"
"I'm Jupiter," he said as she looked back to him, "and you're here in my arms."
She looked unimpressed, but also a bit confused. "Your . . . ears."
What? Jupiter looked to his ear, then realized he couldn't actually see them, and then looked back to the girl. " . . . yeah?"
"They're hideous," she said bluntly, moving away from him. "What's wrong with them?" she asked, looking disgusted.
"Nothing's wrong with them!" Jupiter said, leaning towards her with an angry expression. "They heard exactly what you said about them!"
The woman then proceeded to grab his ear and pull him to the ground in a restraining hold
"Who are you?" she demanded. "Where is King Orion? What are you doing in my castle?"
"A weird ship that turned into a Yellow Dragon brought us here, that's all we know!" Jupiter said, trying his hardest not to cry from the pain she was currently putting him through. The woman paused as she noticed the rifle strapped to his back
"How do you have one of the Dragons?" she asked, letting go of Jupiter, who grunted. "What happened to its Knights? What are you all doing here?" Jupiter stood up, rubbing his head as she stared at them all. "Unless . . . How long has it been?"
"We don't know what you're talking about," Quinton said cautiously. "Why don't you tell us who you are? Maybe we can help."
The Princess shifted to a more defensive posture, looking at them warily as she spoke. "I am Princess Aurora of Paradis. I've got to find out where we are," she said as she walked up to the console, placing her hands on it, "and how long we've been asleep." The console lit up at her touch, a screen appearing in front of her.
"Okay," Bean blinked from behind the console, "that's how that works."
Jupiter turned to see the other pod opening, revealing another fish person that appeared to be an old man with blue hair and a large mustache. He gasped at the sight of Jupiter, screamed, then yelled, "e-enemy combatants!" He jumped out of the pod and towards Jupiter, who quickly moved to the side, causing him to hit the ground. Jupiter looked at him with a raised brow as he struggled to stay standing, grabbing another pod. "Ooooh, clambers!" he looked back to Jupiter, "you're lucky I have a case of the old sleep chamber knees! Otherwise, I'd grab your head like this," he demonstrated the movements, "wrap you up like so, one, two, three," he snapped, "nap time!"
"Well, before you did that I'd," Jupiter moved to do some karate moves, "hoo! Ha! Hiya!" He landed from a jump, smirking, "like that."
"Oh, really?!" the man countered, "well how could you do that when I've already come at you with this?" He bent down, striking the air in front of him and grunting. Jupiter just gave him an unimpressed look, gaze trailing over to the team near Princess Aurora.
"Man, these guys are good," Brick noted, watching as Aurora looked through her screen.
Her expression changed suddenly, turning into a devastating frown as the computer beeped. "It can't be . . . "
"What is it?" the man asked, concerned.
"We've been asleep for a thousand years!" she exclaimed, eyes watering up.
1,000 Years Ago
Aurora was looking at her kingdom that was set in flames much to her horror. "Mallus!"
"Your fleet has been destroyed, Orion. I will be there shortly to claim Surtr." Mallus threatened, ending the transmission as a warship blasted the Castle with a powerful cannon.
"Father, we must summon the Dragons and fight before it's too late!" Aurora exclaimed her determination to stand up against Mallus and his forces.
"It's too late. We must send the Dragons and The Blades of Surtr away. We can't risk them falling into Mallus' hands." Orion said to his daughter.
"We can't give up!" Aurora exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, daughter. If all goes well, I will see you again soon." Orion promised, caressing her cheek, and then put her into a deep sleep with her reaching out to him.
"Father…!"
"I love you."
Back To The Present
Everyone watched her with wide eyes as she froze, seeming to process the information she'd just given them. She was so still she might have gone into shock, her hand going up to her chin. It fell as she blinked, lowering her head. "Our home Paradis . . . and all of the countries on our continent . . . have been destroyed," her brows lowered. "Marion, father is gone," she turned to the man, "our entire civilization . . . " she looked at the ground.
"Mallus," she said suddenly, expression angry.
Quinton gasped beside her, "Mallus?"
"He was the Emperor of the Nychta," she explained, tone sharp and vengeful. "A vile creature, and enemy to all who are free!"
"I think I remember now," Quinton looked down with a pained expression, then rose his head to look at the team. "I was his prisoner."
"He's still alive?" Aurora looked to the side, bringing her fist up to her chest. "How?!"
"I can't explain it, but it's true," Quinton said, posture straightening a bit. "He's searching for a superweapon called Surtr."
"He's searching for it because he knows it's the only thing that can destroy the barrier," Aurora told them, "and that's exactly why we must find it before he does."
With that revelation, the team decided to take a breather, Marion going to retrieve something from another part of the castle while they waited to make a plan. Jupiter found himself next to Phin as Brick and Beam checked out the podium/computer/whatever-it-was before Aurora shooed them away to look at the screen again. They didn't say anything, Jupiter shot her a few glares, but Phin just rolled her eyes, looking at the ground with her arms crossed.
Marion came back in with a plate of some weird purple goop that he set down, and it floated, before he pleaded, "Princess, you must eat! It's been a thousand years!"
"I'm not hungry," Aurora said, eyes on the screen in front of her.
"Man, a thousand years?" Jupiter rose a brow. "That's like one-hundred-plus ten!" He hoped the obviously stupid math would lighten the Princess' spirits
"That's times ten," Phin corrected, apparently not understanding the joke.
"Whatever, dropout," Jupiter shot back, glaring as Phin frowned.
"I haven't eaten since yesterday and I'm starving," Brick said, hands on his stomach.
"Yeah, but you've thrown up like, five times," Bean supplied.
"Hmm . . . good point," Brick said, reaching for the plate of goo. He shoved it in his mouth, then gave a disgusted expression, yet he continued to eat it anyways.
"I can't believe your civilization created such advanced technology a thousand years ago," Quinton said, admiring the room. "It must have been an incredible place."
"Yes," Marion said, still looking a bit . . . hollow. "It was," he looked down, closing his eyes, "but now it is gone . . . " he looked to Aurora, "and we're the last of how kind left."
Aurora looked about ready to cry, mourning as Marion moved to comfort her. She hugged him, sobbing softly for a moment before she gasped, head raising. She walked over to the pod, smiling as she noticed some colorful mice inside, "looks like we're not the last after all."
Suddenly, an alarm began to blare, the screen Aurora had previously been looking at becoming red as it flashed what Bean assumed to be warning signs, though he couldn't read the language. A warship similar to the one that had chased them out of Mantle appeared on the screen, and Marion gasped as they all moved towards the podium.
"A Nychta battleship has set its tracker to us!" he exclaimed.
"How did they find us?!" Aurora asked, walking up behind Marion with the mice in her hands.
"I'm not sure," Jupiter said, arms crossed, "but I bet it's Phin's fault."
"Say whatever you've want to make yourself feel better," Jupiter looked at Phin, who looked pretty angry. "After getting us stuck on the other side of a wormhole!"
Jupiter almost growled as he leaned towards Phin, getting in her face as he yelled, "I'll stick you in a wormhole!" His arms rose when Quinton came over, separating them before they got into a fight.
"Stow it, cadets!" Quinton commanded, "this is no time to be placing blame, it's time to work as a team." He turned to Marion, "How long before they arrive?"
"At their speed?" Marion thought, holding his fingers up to do some quick math, "oh, well, uh, carry the three . . . " he mumbled, "I'd say probably a couple of days?"
"Good," Aurora said, looking determined. "Let them come. By the time they get here," she looked at them, "you five will have gathered the Dragons of Surtr, and together, we will destroy Mallus' empire!"
Brick burped as she finished, smiling cheekily as he apologized, "sorry, food goo."
"Princess, there are five of these...Dragons" Quinton said, "how are we going to find them?"
The birds in Aurora's hands chirped before she spoke, "follow me," and turned, walking out of the room. They all followed close behind her, not wanting to get lost in the mysterious castle. She led them to a bridge and stood under a crystal in the middle of the room that shone down on her as she approached
"King Orion connected the dragons to Aurora's lifeforce," Marion explained as the princess stood in the light, concentrating. "She alone is the key to their whereabouts."
When Aurora opened her eyes, thousands of lights expanded from where she stood, creating what seemed to be a 3D map of Remnant that filled the room. Everyone but Marion gasped at the sudden appearance of the map, looking at it in awe. Quinton could see so many Kingdoms . . . Islands on land, under the sea and even in the sky like Atlas.
"These are . . . coordinates," Bean pointed out. He watched as the island they'd landed on floated past him, holograms of the ship they arrived in and a large black dragon outside of it with lines connecting them to the island. "The Black Dragon looks like it's in the same location as the ship we arrived in."
"Very observant," Aurora said. "That's because the Black Dragon is in the castle."
"To keep the Black Dragon out of Mallus's hands, King Orion locked it in the Castle," Marion explained. "It can only be freed if the other four dragons are present."
"As you have found, the Dragons choose their pilots," Aurora reminded them. "It is a mystical bond, and cannot be forced. The Aura of the pilot is mirrored in their Dragon. Together, they create something greater than science can explain."
Aurora moved her hand forwards, sending the Black Dragon towards Quinton as she spoke. "The Black Dragon only takes a pilot who is a born leader and in control at all times, someone whose men will follow without hesitation. That is why, Quinton, you will pilot the Black Dragon."
"The Green Dragon has an inquisitive nature," Aurora continued, moving the Green Javelin in the direction of Bean, "and needs a pilot of intellect and daring. Bean, you will pilot the Green Dragon." Bean gave a large smile as he looked at the hologram
"The Yellow Dragon--"
"Whope, hold on, let me guess," Jupiter interrupted, holding his chin as he gave his signature grin, "takes the most handsome slash best pilot of the bunch?"
Aurora didn't even respond, instead giving him an annoyed look and moving on. "The Blue Dragon is caring and kind," she smiled, moving the map again. "Its pilot puts the needs of others above his own. His heart must be mighty," the Dragon stopped in front of Brick, who just gaped at it. "You will lift the team up and hold them together."
Brick looked behind him as if to make sure she was talking to him, then he pointed at himself questioningly, giving a confused grunt.
"The Red Dragon is temperamental and the most difficult to master," Aurora continued, the Red Dragon appearing before her hands. "It's faster and more agile than the others, but also more unstable, its pilot needs to be someone who relies more on instincts than skill alone. Phin, you will fly the Red Dragon."
"What? Her?" Jupiter questioned, glaring at Phin.
"Unfortunately, I cannot locate the Red Dragon's coordinates yet," Aurora explained. "There must be something wrong with the Castle. After a thousand years, it... might need some work." Aurora's mouth formed a faint smile
"Don't worry, we'll find it soon," Marion said
Next to Phin, the Red Dragon flew, moving with the other Dragon's to shoot out odd weapons and summon . . . Surtr.
"Once all the Dragon's and their Blades are united, you will summon Surtr," Aurora explained, the red demon-like man appearing above her, "the most powerful warrior ever known!"
"Awesome!" Brick smiled.
"Woah . . . " Bean gaped.
"Wait, okay, we're going to be in there and flying crazy magic dragons. Got that part," Brick began, trying to get things straight. "How do the dragons summon this guy? Also, is this going to be a long trip? Because I got to pee. Do any of you guys need to pee?"
"You know we don't have much time," Quinton said, "Bean and I will go after the Green Dragon. Jupiter, you take Brick and get the Blue one," Jupiter smirked at the mention of his name, ready for this mission. "Phin," Quinton put his hand on Phin's shoulder, "you stay here. If you locate that Red Dragon, go get it."
"In the meantime," Aurora said, "I'll get this castle's defenses ready. They'll be sorely needed."
"Wait," Bean caught the Princesses attention "There is something I don't get"
"What is it?"
"Earlier you said Surtr is the only way to destroy the barrier...What barrier are you talking about?" Bean questioned
Aurora paused for a moment before moving the 3D model of Remnant, zooming in on the Kingdom of Vale and the others surrounding it. "The barrier protecting these countries"
"That's where we all are from" Jupiter add
"Ten years before I was put into cryosleep, a powerful wizard created a barrier around these Kingdoms to hide a set of powerful items from Dark Forces. Completely cutting these Kingdoms off from the rest of the world." Aurora explained "I do not know what kind of spell he used but whenever someone tries to cross the barrier they'll end up on the other side of Remnant, Mallus believes that if he uses the power of Surtr he can destroy the barrier"
"Wait if that's true then how did we get out?" Jupiter asked
"I am uncertain" Aurora answered "I doubt my father meant to send the Yellow Dragon to...Where did you find it?"
"A cave outside Mantle" Phin responded
"I have a theory..." Marion says "But I need one of you to tell me who is the highest of authority in the Kingdom Of Vale?"
"The Headmaster of Beacon Academy" Quinton answers "Professor Ozpin"
"I see" Marion stroked his mustache "Then the Old Man didn't completely abandon us all.."
A foot soldier in black and grey armor let out an exhausted sigh as he knelt in front of his commander. "I apologize again for my sloppiness."
"Do not make that mistake again or I will silence you." The commander threatened as another foot soldier entered.
"Pistós, we have a message from Emperor Mallus with an urgent mission to fulfill." the goon announced as everyone on the bridge of the ship all turned their attention as he started the message up.
Mallus's visage would appear on the projection as he spoke to them "Commander Pistós, the Princess of Paradis is alive and hiding in your sector. We believe that she alone holds the whereabouts of the remaining Dragons. Your battle fleet is the closest to her location. Retrieve her and the Dragons. With them all, the Nychta empire will be unstoppable." Mallus said menacingly.
"I fight for the empire," Pistós said kneeling to his emperor with his left arm across his chest. "I conquer in the name of Nychta. No foe has ever stood in my way and none ever will. Glory to the Night!" The Commander stood up after the screen turned off. "Set a Course for Eris." He ordered.