Hello, my little dragonlets! Man, has this been a wild ride or what? This chapter's not only gonna put Legacy over the 40K word-count, but it'll put the story over 400 views across 160 readers. HUGE MILESTONES, MAN. EXCITED.
...Eh, you guys don't care, you just wanna get to the story. XD Alright, ON WITH THE SHOW!
You found a disclaimer!
Spyro the Dragon, both the game and all related characters (c) Insomniac. They own the Spyro that's in this story, so nyeh.
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage / Gateway to Glimmer, as well as all related characters (c) blah-blah, same copyright.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: The Hidden Towers
Moneybags gave a dark chuckle. This time, the dragon treasure was sure to be his! Spyro would need all six talismans to break into the lower corridors of Summer Castle and face Ripto, but to get the sixth of the Summer talismans, he would need access to Aquaria Towers...which was now safely hidden behind his newest wall. It stood several feet high, and was made of the finest Glimmer marble. Not even a dragon's horns and flames could break through it! Spyro would have no choice but to pay him to put it down!
The bear put on his poker face as he heard Spyro rounding the corner. "Hey, Moneybags!" the dragon greeted, sliding to a halt. "What's up?"
"Oh, Spyro, it's just terrible!" Moneybags sighed. "Ripto heard all about your plan to collect the talismans, and now he's trying to stop you!"
"...He wasn't already?"
"The last of the Summer worlds is back behind this wall!" Moneybags continued. "Ripto put it up to make sure you couldn't get their talisman!"
"Wow, that's a problem."
"I know, I know - tragic. But...I know a thing or two about castle construction, and I think I could put this wall down. It wouldn't be cheap, though. I know collecting the talismans is important for you, Spyro, but, well, I have two boys at home and can't just throw money at saving the world, you know! If you were to pass me, say, four-hundred of the dragon gems, though..."
The bear looked down, only to find that Spyro was nowhere to be found. "Thanks, Moneybags, but I can handle this myself!" He looked up and found the young Artisan in the upper corridors, where he jumped through the arches and gracefully glided over his beautiful wall.
Moneybags grumbled as he kicked the lever to drop the wall. Apparently, the Idol Springs builders needed a bit more clarification as to what "dragon-proof" entailed.
oo00oo00oo
Spyro had given up long ago on trying to guess what he would find in the worlds of Avalar. But with a name like Aquaria Towers, it didn't seem unreasonable to think that there would be SOME water. But no - Aquaria Towers was high and dry.
Not that Spyro minded...until he came across a local, a young seahorse who was being pestered by a Water Worker. The riptoc had a glass of water in his hand, tauntingly waving it in front of the fallen local, who could barely muster the energy to move. Even from a distance, you could see the pain in the seahorse's eyes, begging for even a drop of the water.
So the Water Worker naturally dumped it and walked away. He made it all of three steps before meeting Spyro's horns.
Afterwards, the Artisan went to the aid of the fallen seahorse, Ripple. "Gods, are you okay?"
Ripple shook his head, forcing a raspy breath. "Ripto's Water Workers have drained all of our water! Something about a theme park in Sunny Beach... He has riptocs and crabs all over the Towers, making sure nobody disturbs the release switches!" He gave a weak cough. "Not that it matters... Without water, we seahorses can barely move..."
Spyro felt a tug of anxiety in his chest as he realized what Ripple was suggesting. "So...if we pull all of the release switches...it'll flood Aquaria Towers? Like, EVERYTHING will be underwater?"
The seahorse gave a weak nod, and Spyro could suddenly see the first of the release valves, hidden behind a Water Worker watchman. He certainly didn't like the idea of purposefully filling a castle with water, but on the other hand, the seahorses needed him. They needed ANYBODY, really - how long could they last in the dry air?
Good thing he learned how to swim.
oo00oo00oo
Moneybags gave his submarine one last polish, giving a low chuckle as he did. This was it! Spyro had no choice but to pay him this time! He had already learned earlier about Spyro's aversion to the water (quite personally, as the hyperactive dragon headbutted him into Summer Lake for charging five-hundred gems for swimming lessons), so Aquaria Towers was destined to be his ultimate exploit.
Ripto, once again, helped him out. In order to protect the water delivery, the small sorcerer littered giant, mechanical sharks across the area. They were much larger than Spyro, and programmed to devour and shred intruders on sight. The only weakness that he could notice was that they didn't seem incredibly stable...but Spyro would be stricken of flame in the water! He had no way of dealing with them!
That's why he made his newest investment - the SS Moneybags, his own private submarine, decorated just like a shark to make sure that Ripto's mecha-guards wouldn't even give it a second look. If Spyro wanted to reach the upper tiers of Aquaria Towers, he'd have NO choice but to-
SCHWOOP! The pompous bear ducked and covered as a wave of heat and explosion shook through his air pocket. "Hit the deck, we're being attacked!"
But he wasn't being attacked. He just barely caught glimpse of a reddish-violet dragon and his little, yellow dragonfly, both diving into the shark tunnels. When Moneybags climbed to the edge, he watched as all of Ripto's sharks were shredded under the heat of a fire blast so hot, it burned like white magma, even through the depths of the Aquarian Ocean. Spyro and Sparx made it through unharmed.
"Darn it! Note to self: buy out the Professor's power-up gates and ban them."
oo00oo00oo
"Manta, no! Bad Manta!"
Hunter gave a sharp sigh, which passed through his scuba gear as a staticky mess. Manta ray racing was all the rage in Aquaria Towers, but how was he supposed to take the circuit by storm if he couldn't even make his manta ray listen to him?
Suddenly, Manta shot off the ground, ducking behind his owner for safety. When Hunter looked up, he saw that it had been blasted in the face by a stream of dragon-bubbles. "Spyro, what are you doing here?" he tsked.
The dragon merely waved, circling the cheetah and further harassing his manta ray. "Hey, that's my pet! Get away from him! Don't you have a Ripto to be torching up on dry land?"
Spyro turned to face Hunter, then spied the pair of orbs laying by his racing gear. The dragon pointed at the glittering jewels, a stern look on his face. "Oh, those? I, uh...found those in my flippers before I came down!" Still, Spyro gave him a sour glare. "I was gonna give 'em to ya later, I swear! What, you think I'm just gonna lose-"
Suddenly, Hunter stopped, noticing Spyro's unusual silence. He hadn't known the dragon long, but not long was long enough to know that their dragon-guest was a talkative one. "Why're you bein' so quiet, anyway?"
"I'd like to see you try talking underwater without that big ol' air-tank on your back," Sparx answered instead, buzzing into Hunter's face (or as close as he could get without popping his bubble). "What're you doing down here, anyway? I thought pussycats were ascared of the water!"
"I just don't like getting my fur wet, that's all!" Hunter snapped. "At least I have scuba gear and don't have to float around in some flimsy bubble!"
Hunter took a swipe at the dragonfly, thinking that popping the bubble and wetting his wings would show Sparx who was in charge. As he took the swing, though, he was knocked back by a painful blow to the gut - one even worse than a typical faun-kick from Elora.
The cheetah nearly spit out his respirator, and once it was back in place, sat up to find Spyro on top of him, fire burning in his eyes. The dragon couldn't speak, but the message was clear: do NOT touch my dragonfly. EVER.
In a furious huff (likely because Spyro didn't have access to his flames to give Hunter a torch to the tail), the visiting Artisans grabbed Hunter's orbs and swam off to finish exploring the Aquarian Ocean, leaving the cheetah alone with his manta ray once again.
Hunter groaned, rubbing his aching side as he gingerly returned to his flippers. Out of all of the dragons, why did they get the tiny one with an attitude?
oo00oo00oo
Spyro gave a nervous gulp as he stared up to the top of the lengthy tower. Not only had the Water Workers drained Aquaria Towers of its trademark water, but they had kidnapped six of the royal seahorses, imprisoning the princes and princesses at the tops of six highly-guarded towers.
The first few towers weren't so difficult. Crabs were easy enough to deal with, even without the ability to breathe fire. The later ones became more and more challenging, as they invoked one of Spyro's greatest weaknesses.
Zap. Zap. Zap. Zap.
Electricity.
Still aching from his trip through Hurricos, Spyro wasn't sure how to tackle the tower above him. The last of King Flippy's children, Prince Flippy II, was barely visible at the top of the fortress-like tower, crying for help. Spyro had already run into the electric fences on the previous towers (and didn't need Sparx's electric-blue glow making him more nervous), and those were much farther and fewer than this tower.
His Artisan skills went to work as he watched the fence spiral up towards the ceiling. It was a rotating pattern - the fence would start low, then slowly progress up towards the top, stopping just short of the seahorse prince.
Following typical Peacekeeper protocol, Spyro rushed forward, stopping just shy of the electric barrier when it spawned at the bottom of the tower. He gave a shudder as the electricity burned through the surrounding waters, tingling his horns if he didn't duck his head low enough.
When a similar field appeared below him, Artisan instinct took over, and he paddled slow and steady upwards, trying to stay in the small strip of comfortable waters between the sizzling fields. So long as he could maintain pace, he would reach the top without any-
SNAP! Spyro let out a fume of bubbles, freezing in place as a jolt shook through his tail just short of the prince. He whipped around to find a crab loose in the towers, eyes alight in a laugh at the dragon's reaction. The Artisan became Peacekeeper once more, and he bashed the crab-creature into oblivion for its crimes.
Unfortunately, the crab did its job. Spyro faltered in his swim slightly, dropping him into the electric fence. He gagged on the water as it rushed into his lungs, legs convulsing and swiping at everything as the shock rushed through his spine. Light blue flashes popped across his vision, and his wings flapped into a frenzied spasm, sending him straight up into the roof of the tower. Combined with the dizzying shock to the system, Spyro felt faint when his head cracked into the glass lights at the top of the prison.
He looked around for Sparx, heaving for breath and struggling to find it in the watery world, but the dragonfly was impossible to see. Darkness overtook his search, and Spyro could feel his muscles turn from spastic and on-edge to dull and unresponsive. He sank lower and lower, ears ringing with the echoed zaps.
Zap. Zap. Zap. Zap.
oo00oo00oo
"Are you sure he's going to be okay, Sparx?" Elora couldn't help but pace through the grassy knoll outside of the Aquaria portal, eyes jumping back to the still-unconscious dragon every few seconds.
Sparx, slowly building up to a dull green color as he munched on the butterfly Elora had brought him (after a bit of confusion on her part; she still didn't understand how a handful of butterflies were going to help Spyro), gave a buzz. "Just give him a break. Pacing like that isn't going to make him wake up any faster."
Still, the faun was racked with emotion. Worry, panic, nervousness...and most of all, guilt. Spyro and Sparx were supposed to be relaxing on the beaches of Dragon Shores. What happened instead? They sent him into Aquaria Towers, where he had to be dragged back by an invisible dragonfly and a seahorse prince, burnt a new shade of purple and shaking like a leaf, not to mention the odd notch that was now bending the tip of his tail.
Eventually, the Artisan came to, giving a weak groan as he stretched his front paws. "Spyro? Are you okay?" she jumped, kneeling by his side.
Spyro winced, coughing to spit up all of the water he had swallowed before shooting a lungful of wet smoke to warm his chest. "Jeez, not so loud, goat-girl..." he groaned.
If it were anybody else, they'd have her hoof in their face, but given the situation, Elora let the goat-comment slide. Spyro gave a stretch, gingerly trying to work out the kink in his tail. "Ow...What happened?"
"You and electricity don't mix, that's what happened," Sparx buzzed, taking a seat between his dragon-brother's horns.
"Prince Flippy II said you blacked out after rescuing him from the Water Worker jail," Elora explained, filling in the blanks. "He and Sparx brought you back here as fast as they could."
Spyro looked around, dimly registering that they were back in Summer Castle. "So...Aquaria Towers is okay?"
"Better than ever! There isn't a Water Worker left!"
The Artisan nodded, tiredly dropping his head into his paws. "Great," he yawned. "I'll go back 'n...ask 'em for the talisman thing later, 'n...then I'll go deal..."
The dragon was asleep before he could even finish his checklist. Elora decided to tell him that King Flippy also sent the Enchanted Shell as thanks for all his hard work later.
"Don't worry, he'll be fine," Sparx buzzed, glow flickering like he was ready for a nap himself. "Once Spyro gets up and I get lunch, we'll go torch Ripto out of Summer Forest for good!"
AW YEA TALISMANS. With all six talismans, will Spyro be able to clear Ripto out of Summer Forest? Will the rivalry between him and Hunter continue? How many more times am I going to get to exploit water and electricity? (Seriously, though, I think we all hate that tower rescue mission.) Find out all this and more, next time on Legacy!
Thanks again for reading, guys! I'm really glad you guys are enjoying it and keep coming back! :) See you next time!
§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §