Spyro was apprehensive about this plan Cynder had.
In fact, he had spent the last thirty minutes trying to convince her to give up on it, but the black dragoness didn't really listened to him. Well, maybe she would have listened, if Adamaius had not been in favor of the plan.
"Anything that will allow me to get out of this place." The Burglar said, letting the black dragoness know that he was into the plan. Shiryu was on that as well, although Spyro and Cynder both had the impression that the eastern dragon was mostly doing it because he wanted to tag along with them.
Soon, Cynder had explained to them her plan, and soon, the dragons separated, agreeing to meet once they had all that they would need for the plan.
Spyro tagged along with Cynder, as she went along with him picking up a few things that they could find around there. Of course, they still needed to talk with some of the workers of the facility to be able to find the things that they wanted and that would be good for the plan. However, it was not hard. After all, they had free access to everything in there, and many of the dragons seemed like they were very inclined to give the famous Spyro and Cynder anything that they asked.
Spyro did felt awkward in having such a fame. It was aggravate by the fact that he felt as if he was taking advantage of it to do something that he wasn't suppose to. However, with time, the two dragons had gathered the things that they were going to need. Mostly, they gathered some of the equipment that they could use on their forelegs, and they saw that most of the dragons had with them. That was some standard thing that dragons could have, as it reunited credit for purchase, personal communication device, and many more applications, including portable gaming and showing time.
Another thing that they got was some special thing to use on their bodies, that was not too different from what Spyro and Cynder remembered of the harnesses with bags on the sides that dragons used to carry things with them while they traveled. With the difference that these ones were like the rest of the things of the future. They had an automatic opening and closing system, and they were capable of holding an amount of material inside of them that was much bigger than bags of that side should be able to, and they still weight nearly nothing.
These things were useful, and the dragons knew that they would need them on the outside. However, they still had some problem to actually deal with them, as they still did with most of the technology that has been present to them up until the moment.
They took them gladly as the other dragons gave it to them.
"We just want to get more acclimated with technology." Was Cynder's explanation, and everyone took it. They didn't question why they needed four of each, and neither why they would be needing equipment of different sizes.
Once Spyro and Cynder arranged all that they had proposed themselves to arrange, they were soon moving to the spot where they had agreed to meet up with the others. It took a while for them to find, but they were eventually able to navigate their way to that specific spot.
Adamaius was already in there, standing half shrouded in the shadows, with Shiryu floating on the air by his side. The Burglar looked at them with his nearly glowing red eyes, and the purple dragon and black dragoness both looked back at him as they approached.
"You are late." He said, looking at them, and they were about to say something, but Adam himself cut them before they could.
"Never mind that." He said, looking at the two. "Have you guys got it?"
"Right in here." Cynder said, as she and Spyro showed to the other purple dragon what they had. Adamaius seemed to approve. "And you? Have you got it?"
"You almost offend me by asking something like that." He said, and showed to them what he had gotten. Necklaces and other jewelry that had crystals of different colors on them.
"Watashi mo tasukemashita!" Shiryu said, as he snaked through the air near the other dragon's head.
"So, are those it?" Cynder asked, and Adamaius scoffed.
"Of course those are it. I wouldn't have gone here without making sure that they were it."
"Was it hard to get them?" Cynder asked, and Adam shook his head.
"Actually, it was way easier than I thought." He said, looking at the black dragoness. "These guys didn't really questioned when I said that I needed some of those to play with the younger ones. It all went really smoothly, actually, even though Shiryu nearly put everything to lose."
"What? I just said to them that we needed these to sneak into the city without the others knowing that we are purple dragons." He said, sounding as if he was saying something normal and perfectly reasonable. Adam looked at him, and then back at the other two:
"Luckily, the guys thought that Shiryu was talking about the game we were going to play with these." He said, "You know, on the old days my family actually used those to perform special missions when they needed to disguised." He picked one of the jewelry and examined it. "Now they are even selling them as toys."
"So, we have everything we need, it seems." Cynder said, as she picked up the objects and placed them on the ground. "I guess we are ready."
"Good." Adam said, "So, let's get started, alright? I can't wait to get out of this place."
"Guys, I still am not sure about that." Spyro said, looking at the other dragons. "I think that we should not do it."
"Oh, come on, Spyro." The black dragoness said, looking at her companion. "Don't you want to go outside?" She asked, "To see what Warfang has become? To see how the future is like? I really want to see this."
"Well, I understand." Spyro said, looking at Cynder, "But, we don't have permission to go out... I mean... They would probably be angry at us for sneaking out."
"Are you serious?" Adam said, looking at him, and Spyro looked back at him.
"You know, I always took the stories of the legendary Spyro with a grain of salt. A BIG grain of salt." He said, looking at the other purple dragon, "But I have to say, I never imagined that you would be a wuss."
Spyro flinched with these words, and Adamaius continued:
"You might be a goody-four-paws that does everything that everyone tells you to do, but I am not. I am done being stuck in this darn place, and I am getting out today if I can." Adam said, "Your girlfriend's plan actually has some really good chances of working, and if it gets me out of here, then I'm totally in."
Spyro looked at him for a few moments, and then he looked at Cynder, hoping that she would back him up at this. However, one look at the face of the black dragoness told him that this would not be the case.
"I want to see what Warfang is like today, Spyro." Cynder said, looking at the purple dragon, "I want to see with my own eyes how much the city has actually changed. And, to be fully honest, I also don't really like being stuck in a place."
Spyro looked at her, and then he looked at Shiryu. The noodle dragon looked back at him, and shrugged.
"I don't have problems with staying here." The eastern dragon said, "But going outside sounds like fun, and I want to go with Adam-san."
Spyro looked now at the three dragons, and they looked back at him.
"Looks like is three against one in favor of going on with the plan." Adam said, a smirk on his muzzle. "You might stay if you want, but we are going anyway."
Spyro looked at all of them, in particular at Cynder, who looked at them with a certain expectation. She was going with them, and Spyro knew that by looking in her eyes. Spyro still felt like he should not go, however, he also knew that he could not let Cynder go in there without him. He would be worried sick with her if he wasn't by her side.
Spyro really had no real option but to tag along.
"So, we are decided?" Adam asked, looking at them, "Good, then let's get going with this plan before one of the guards comes and sees us."
With this, the four dragons were moving around. Adam was the one who was carrying all of the equipment that they were going to use to go around, and no one really batted an eye at them as they all walked together.
Of course, there were a lot of them who looked at them with amazement as they passed, and some even requested to take some "selfies" with them as they passed, but mostly no one tried to get on their way. Still, some of them made them stop in order to question them on where they were going.
Luckily, they were able to come up with some convincing excuses as to why they were moving around the facility.
"Cosmos asked us to grab some things for him."
"Captain Watercrest wanted us to check on a thing with his superior."
"We are just looking for Jocasta and Shiloh, we agreed to play with them a little bit when we had the chance."
"We are just walking around."
Spyro was a bit nervous as he moved around, and so was Cynder, but she was able to disguise her nervousness quite efficiently, and she was proving to be quite good at lying to other people's faces. However, she was clearly not as good at this as Adamaius, who was proving that he was very good convincing people that he was doing nothing that he should not be doing, and that they had nothing to worry about.
Of course, they also had to avoid the people who actually would ask some difficult questions, like some of the smarter scholars in there, or the higher-ranking officials. These guys would surely want to know what the purple dragons and the black dragoness were doing in that part of the facility, which was suspiciously close to the exit, and a place that they know that the other purple dragons didn't usually came. These individuals would surely catch up on them and prevent them from doing what they were planning to do. Luckily, Adamaius had already memorized who were these guys, and he had come with effective ways of going around them without being noticed.
The Burglar was proving to have skills that were very valuable to the group that was currently on a plan to get out of the place without permission from the other dragons.
"It comes from being raised to become an assassin." The older purple dragon would whisper to the other ones as they walked "You learn how to convince others that you are not guilty, to remember important things, and to completely avoid detection. All the things that you need if you want to do the job right."
They were now proving to be essential for them to get away with this, as they continued to advance through the corridors and doors, and they were effectively getting closer and closer to the exit.
Of course, they can only walk normally until a certain point, in which people would really start questioning them why they were moving so close to the exit. At this point, they really started sneaking around, and for that, Adam himself had offered a solution.
"We just have to stand on a blind spot." He said to the others, "I walked around here enough to know that there are some blind spots on the surveillance, and that we can easily hide in them and then we will be able to do things without being seen. From that point on, we will be using the shadow element."
"We will turn into shadows then we will be able to escape from those guys. The people in here look everywhere when they are walking, except up and down. They won't see us passing by them."
"Hmm, only one problem, guys." Spyro said, looking at the two. "I don't know how to do that."
"Me neither." Said Shiryu.
"You don't need to know." Cynder said, and she looked at Spyro. "Do you remember how they explained that they learned things about purple dragons since our time? Well, one of the things that they learned is that purple dragons can resonate with other elements. Basically, they can ride along into a specific technique of elemental magic while in contact with the dragons who is doing it. So, if Adamaius and I are touching both of you while we turn into shadows..."
"This will cause them to be able to turn into shadows as well, even though neither of them learned how to do that by themselves yet." Adam concluded the thought, and Cynder nodded at him.
"So, while we are all shadows, we will be able to travel around the place without being seen until we have managed to leave." The dragoness said, "Preferably by jumping between shadows so no one truly notices us."
"It seems that our chance is coming, right on cue." Adamaius said, a smirk forming on his lips. "Everyone get ready, we are doing it."
This made the dragons all stood in attention, and Spyro soon was asking:
"W-wait, how do we do it? Do we need to focus on something or we just go with the flow? Do we have to keep touching? What if we cannot change back without help? I think we should..."
"Oh, quit whining." Adam said to him, and Cynder then said:
"Just hold my paw, and let me lead." She offered her paw to him. Spyro hesitated, but he soon was taking it. At the same time, Shiryu was grabbing Adam's tail, as per the older dragon instructed him, as all of them retreated to a point near the wall where Adamaius had assured them that the surveillance would not be able to perceive them.
As someone approached, the dragoness and the Burglar both focused, and soon, they were sinking into the ground, turning into shadows.
Spyro and Shiryu looked at them, feeling nothing at first, but then, when they reached the ground, they actually felt it. It was as if their bodies were losing their shape and liquefying. However, it was not as if they were turning into liquid, but more like they were turning into something unsubstantial. Something that was between a liquid and a gas, but even more ethereal, and at the same time they remained as coherent and in shape as if they were still solid. The proof of it was that they could still feel themselves tightly holding onto the respective dragon.
Spyro found the feeling strange, but also vaguely familiar. There was an undernote on the feeling. It was the same feeling he had when he and Cynder were using Convexion together.
By the time someone finally passed by that spot they had completely melted into shadow, and were only a pair of shadows on the ground. The bipedal dragoness with the lab coat didn't even noticed the shadows, not even when they dove on her direction and hid within her own shadow, vanishing nearly completely.
She didn't noticed nothing wrong, as she continued her way, focused on the files that she was reading as she walked, and she soon was passing by more doors and hallways, until she passed by another dragon, this one four-legged and wearing a tactical armor. As she passed right by his side, something moved from her shadow to his'.
The four-legged dragon suddenly stopped and looked at the ground around his feet, but not directly under himself, while the dragoness continued her way without giving attention to the fact that he had stopped. The dragon looked at the ground for nearly half-a-minute, before he shrugged and continued his way.
He passed by a few more doors and corridors, passing by some more creatures on his way. At a moment, he passed by two smaller creatures, a cheetah and a bear. At the moment, two shadows came out of his' and each one dove under the two creatures. They were so focus on their conversation that they continued their way without noticing anything weird, not noticing that their shadows seemed to be a bit bigger than what they were suppose to.
This continued for a while, with the dragons inside of the shadows jumping from one shadow into another. Spyro and Shiryu were both just following along, once it were Cynder and Adam, respectively, who were leading them. It was as if the leading dragons were swimming while they carried/dragged the passengers along with them. It required a certain effort, but both of them found out that they had no problem in carrying the other two with them.
Adam demonstrated that he had a lot of practice in doing it, as he was able to jump from one shadow to another better than Cynder, and sometimes he even helped her to jump by nudging into her to cause her to move. To Cynder, it felt like the other dragon was bumping and pushing her in a certain direction, and while it was something that felt uncomfortable, it was helping her to make her way through the hallways until they all would be able to get to a point where they would be able to go to the exit.
They jumped from shadow to shadow for a few minutes, going farther than they would have been able to by simply walking around as they had been doing minutes before, as they had to remain hidden in the shadows of others while still trying to find the path to the outside. This meant that they needed to hide in the shadows of the ones who were going in direction to the exit, and it was something quite hard when there were so many busy creatures working on that facility. Of course, the fact that Adamaius had walked up and down that place helped a lot at this point, once this meant that he was able to recognize when they were going in direction to the exit, and he was able to notice when they needed to jump to someone else's shadow.
Still, the best would be if they were hiding in the shadow of someone who was effectively going to the exit.
"So, you going out?" The armored green dragon said to the gryphon that walked by his side. "In the middle of the day?"
"Yeah, I have to." She said to him, looking at him through the lens of the glasses that were balance on her beak. "My mother needs me to take her to the hospital for her final checkup. No one else on the family can do it; I am the only relative she has on Warfang. She has not been very good of the head lately, and she gets lost even trying to find her own bedroom, if I don't go with her she might end up on some bad part of the city."
The dragon nodded at this, and offered his condolences for the situation of the gryphon's mother. She nodded at him.
"Don't worry, I already got Fred to cover me, and I'll be back in one hour tops. You don't have to worry." She said, and the dragon nodded to her.
"Well, if you say so. I'll be seeing you later then, Dione. Good luck with everything."
"Later." She said, as she and the dragon parted ways. Both of them failed to notice the shapes that moved from the dragon's shadow to the gryphon's, vanishing inside of it. The female herself remained unaware of it, as she walked across the hallways and through the automatic doors, and soon, she was moving in direction to the main gates.
In her way, she passed by the guard, a bulky dragon with dark-grey scales, who looked back at her.
"Hey, Dione. Going out for lunch early?"
"Family emergency, Ferrus." The gryphon said, as she approached the gate and it opened as it recognized her. "Mom has been having her attacks again."
"Damn. These are getting more frequents, aren't they?" The dragon asked, and the gryphon nodded.
"Yeah, I am considering hiring a live-in nurse to take care of her, if they keep happening like that." She said, as the gate opened. "I'll be talking to her doctor about that."
"Hope she gets well soon." Shiryu said from within the shadow, before Adamaius silenced him. Luckily, the female gryphon didn't realized that the voice had come from directly under her.
"Thanks." Dione said as she walked through the gates, ignoring the confused expression of Ferrus as she said that. She walked past the gates, which closed behind herself as she walked into the open field. At this moment, she was finally able to spread her wings and start to flap them.
In no time, she was soaring to the skies. She failed to notice that her shadow had remained in place.
Soon, the shadow divided into two smaller shadows, and they dashed across the ground, going around the wall of the facility and turning a corner. That was when the dragons finally emerged from the ground.
Spyro let out a gasp, as he was once more solid. Cynder let go of his paw, and the purple dragon immediately passed his paws over his body, as if to see if all of him was substantial again. It nearly seemed that he was afraid that something had been lost on the way.
However, Spyro was still all in one piece. Every part of his body had come back from the shadow form. The same was truth to the other three, who were still with all of their beings intact. Adam was still holding all of the equipment on his arm, and none of it had been lost on the way either.
"Totemo kakkoyokattadesu!" Shiryu said, and neither Spyro nor Cynder understood what it meant, but they had the impression that the oriental dragon had enjoyed what they just did.
"Okay then." Adam said, now picking up the jewelry that they had brought, and handling it over the other dragons. "Time to drop the purple coloration, guys."
With this said, the dragons soon were picking up the objects that they would be using. Cynder and Spyro picked up necklaces, while Shiryu picked up a tailband and Adam picked a bracelet. Each one of them had a set of gemstones of different colors.
Spyro was the first to place the necklace around his neck, and it fit nicely on him. Just as the jewelry fit around his neck, something started to happen:
The red gemstones on the necklace started to glow, and then, Spyro's purple scales changed, their color shifting to a vivid red coloration. Such coloration spread through his entire body, replacing all of the purple with red.
Spyro now looked like any regular fire dragon.
Next it was Cynder's turn. She placed the necklace around her neck, immediately the gray and white gems on the jewelry started to glow, and then Cynder's scales changed. The black of her body was replace by a grey coloration, while the maroon of her chest and wing membranes was replace with white coloration. She now looked like a perfect wind dragoness.
"Man, those actually work." Spyro said, looking amazed at Cynder and at himself. He was holding his paw in front of his face, looking in amazement as the previously purple paw was now of a shade of red. "Our scales actually changed."
"Of course they did." Adamaius said, looking at the purple dragon. "That is how chameleon crystals work." He spoke it as if he was speaking to a child, and he then proceeded to pick up the bracelet that had black gemstones in it, and place it on his wrist, and immediately, the mardi grass of his scales changed into a coal-black coloration.
"My family used of these a lot when they needed to make undercover works and to blend into the crowd in a rush." Adam said, looking at his new black scales, which matched the dark-yellow of his underbelly. "Now these things are sold around as if they were toys. Using them was actually a good idea." He admitted, thinking on how he didn't thought of it sooner. "So, how did you thought of this?" He asked Cynder, and the black (now grey) dragoness looked back at him and answered:
"From the series and movies that Asher showed us." The dragoness said, "He spoke a lot on how the actors used these kinds of crystals to change their scales so they could play the roles as if they were different dragons."
Adam chuckled.
"Yeah, of course." He said, and by his side, Shiryu was floating and he had picked up the last item of jewelry, and he placed it on his tail. Immediately, the green stones in it started to glow, and then the coloration of his scales changed from purple to green. Even the hair that the dragon had changed to a softer shade of green than his scales, and this made him look like a different dragon altogether.
"Wow! We look like different dragons!" Shiryu said in amazement, as he nearly tied himself in a knot as he flew around himself to see his own scales with different colors.
Soon, the dragons were now donning the rest of the equipment, as they placed it on themselves, with the harnessed with the technological bags on their bodies, to carry things, and the bracelets to their arms. It was Adam who convinced them to use those, once Cynder's plan only involved the Chameleon Crystals. The Burglar managed to convince them that they would be needing the rest of the things if they were to walk around the city.
"Okay, I guess that now we can get going, right?" Adamaius said once they were all suited up, and soon, the four dragons were turning on the corner of the wall.
To nearly bump into a huge dragon wearing security uniform.
They froze in place, looking at the bigger dragon, who looked down at him with surprise, and then with a serious expression.
"You are not supposed to be here."
The four dragons tensed a little bit, and they looked at the bigger dragon, before the dragon looked back at them and said:
"This area is closed to civilians. You kids need to get going."
The dragons relaxed at this, Adamaius spoke next, looking at the guard.
"Oh, I am sorry, sir." He said, sounding very polite as he spoke to the bigger dragon. "We were just making a stroll around the place, and we decided to check the facility up close. It was Incendius idea." He gestured to Spyro, currently disguised as a regular fire dragon, "He has a great admiration for the facility workers, and he hopes to be one when he is older."
"Really?" The guard said, looking back at the other dragon, and he said:
"Well, that's admirable of you. But you have to know, only the best and the brightest are called to work in here, so if you wanna become one of us, you get to give your very best in each step of the way, okay?"
Spyro looked at him for a few moments, and then he nodded. "Y-yes sir."
"Okay, now you have seen the place, so this means that all of you can now get going, right?" The dragon said to the younger ones. "Now all of you go. Shoo."
He was rather dismissive as he said that, but was not rude, by any means, and the dragons all followed what had just been said to them, as they were soon moving away from the facility, while the guard looked at them leaving, before he turned around and resumed his patrol.
"The best and the brightest." Adam said, looking over his shoulder at the big burly guard. "Yeah, right. Or that does not applies to guards, thanks Tiamat that much hasn't really changed since my time."
They all walked away from the property of the facility, and they were already able to see the city of Warfang around them. The facility was, like the rest of the city, inside of the great walls, which Spyro and Cynder were familiar with, but it seemed that the facility was somewhat far from the main city. Still, it was close enough that they were able to see the city on the distance.
They could see the huge buildings rising from the ground, pretty much as they had first seen on the simulation that Captain Aquarius had showed to them. However, that Warfang that was in the distance was not a mere illusion.
No. That Warfang was real.
Spyro had been hesitant up until now, but, upon seeing the real Warfang within his field of vision, the purple dragon could not avoid being take over by a feeling that he was familiar with. It was the feeling that he had when he wanted to go ahead and explore. It was the feeling that he had when he wanted an adventure.
That was a feeling that Spyro had not felt since he was still young. Before he went into the greatest adventure of his life.
Curious how to Spyro it felt so little time. He could swear that it had been only under a year, when in fact it had been much more.
Being stuck inside a crystal two times, the first for three years and the second for fifty thousand, really messed with your time perception.
All of sudden, Spyro was a little hatchling again, and an adventure was standing just ahead of him. Waiting for him. Inviting him to come along and explore.
All of sudden, Spyro didn't felt so much nervous about doing that anymore.
"So, you guys ready?" Cynder asked, and all of the other three nodded.
"Just remember to keep it cool." Adamaius said to them, "There are a lot of creatures on the city, but most of them are still dragons. We will blend in just fine. If in doubt, just try to imitate what the others are doing and try to walk away discreetly."
With this, the group was now ready. Cynder, Spyro and Adam all flapped their wings and took it to the sky, with Shiryu following them by snaking through the air right by their side. The facility now stood behind, as the four dragons moved in direction to the city of Warfang.
This completes this chapter, sorry if it is shorter than the previous ones, but the events of this chapter were resolved rather quickly.
Also, the "chameleon crystals" idea is one that you can originally find on the fan-comic "Pure Light", on DeviantArt, go give it a read, it is a good story.