Blah-blah, welcome back, blah-blah! Blah, witty banter, blah! Laughter, haha-blah! Blah-blah, on with the show, blah? Blah! (By the way, who told Lucky Ryuujin what area we were doing this week? D: Or do I need to start doing a contest on who can guess what level comes next?)
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 TWENTY-THREE: Scowched Eawth
Greta's eyes darted across the plaza, anxiously searching for swordstocs that may have been guarding the area. With the resistance flags planted and reinforcements on the way, the twins had completed their mission. All that was left was to escape without being captured.
"Alwight, Handel, I t'ink the coast is cwear," Greta whispered back to her brother. "On twee, we run fer it, 'kay?"
The blonde turned when she received no response. "...Handel?"
"Greta, lookit what I found!" The mini femme fatale found her other half sneaking up to the plaza, motioning towards a shiny cherry lolly. "And it's cherry, my favorite!"
"Handel, no, don't!" But it was too late; Handel had taken the bait. Unable to fight her brother's impending punishment, Greta leapt from the plaza, just as the swordstocs arrived to haul the captured Handel away, still dangling from the fake lolly on the fishing wire.
oo00oo00oo
Spyro frowned as he and Sparx circled the entryway of the Scorch castle. Normally, there would be a local nearby that he could interrogate on the situation - someone searching for help, unable to combat the riptocs and desperate for a hero. This time, though, there was nothing - a few guys with swords on camels, a pack of monkeys in the coconut trees...but no locals.
Until he felt one crash onto his back from above. "Oof!"
Greta flipped to her feet, quick to recognize the purple scales that had broken her fall. "Oh, hewwo there! You mus' be Spywo, the dwagon sent in to fight Wipto!"
Spyro stretched his wings to unflatten them before facing the young blonde. "Yeah, that'd be me. What were you doing up there, you could've gotten hurt!"
"Oh, no, I was fine," she reassured. "You were just in my landin' spot. Bad wuck on yer part. Sowwy."
Spyro looked up to the plaza where she had fallen from. "What were you doing up there, anyway?"
Greta looked about for listeners. Finding none, she leaned in close. "My bwother Handel 'n I are on a secwet mission to bwow up the cas'le 'n take out all'a Wipto's swordstocs. We posted da fwags to call in the weinfowcements, but duwing our getaway, Handel got caught, so I had ta wun."
The dragon bit back a laugh, suddenly brought back to the days when he and Sparx were pups, pretending to be gnorc-busters and setting up secret missions across Stone Hill. "Wow, sounds like you two are having an adventure."
Greta pouted. "I's not an adventure, we're on an impowtant super secwet spy mission!" Seeing how Spyro didn't believe her, the blonde went on her way. "Whatever, Spywo - jus' twy not ta get beat up by swordstocs on the way, okay?"
As he watched the young one walk off, Spyro ran a bit of math in his head. Did he miss the part where he was supposed to come in and save the day?
oo00oo00oo
Being careful to avoid the eyes of the guards, Greta slinked through the scattered shadows of Scorch, double-checking each of the checkpoints for crimson flags. They were still in place...for now.
Ducking under the bridge and crossing the moat hand-over-hand, the blonde breathed easy as she stepped into the plaza. "Well, that was easier than I-"
...Only to immediately be surrounded by several sharpened blades. "Spoke too soon."
"By order of our Grand Majesty Ripto, you are under arrest!" one of the swordstocs threatened. "Go quietly or we will be forced to take action!"
Greta gave a nod, acknowledging their request that she remain silent. The blonde took a deep breath, stepped forward to follow the guards into the castle, then leapt into the air, high above the heads of her attackers. Stunned and caught off-guard, the swordstocs could only watch as Greta drop-kicked the largest of their group, sending him tumbling. She caught his sword as she came down from her flip, then used the flat side of it to swing the second swordstoc into a column, knocking him unconscious.
The third took a swing at the nimble agent, allowing Greta to jump atop his blade and springboard her kick directly into his face. When the blonde turned her stolen sword to the final guard, he did what any reasonable riptoc would do - turned tail and ran, screaming like a sissy the entire way. Typical.
With a clear path into the castle in her sights, Greta made a mad dash for the door, narrowly sliding by before the gate slammed shut. Now all she had to do was find Handel and hope it wasn't too late!
oo00oo00oo
Spyro, meanwhile, was fairly clueless, still wandering the winding castle path in search of a day that needed to be saved. He found Hunter struggling against a pack of loose monkeys, but other than mildly conveniencing the staff at the Avalar Zoo, he had yet to find any real problems to be taken care of.
Indeed, all seemed too quiet. Until he found a crazy man with a carpet and a turban rushing to the flag-towers.
"LONG LIVE THE KINGDOM!" the flagkeeper cackled, filling the sandy dunes with his shrieking laugh as he tore away the crimson and gold flags that littered the area. "Say good-bye to your precious flags, resistance! Thou shalt feel the smiting wrath of Scorch!"
Spyro vaguely recalled the blonde in pigtails mentioning that the flags were important, so he rushed over to the tower. "HEY! Those flags aren't yours! Put that back!"
The flagkeeper looked down nervously; he didn't think his rebellion against the rebels would attract the attention of the evil dragon. "Oh, uhm..." Taking advantage of his altitude and speed, the flagkeeper rushed off. "You have to catch me first, dragon!"
Spyro couldn't help but smirk. An excuse to use the superflame powerup he found in the plaza? Definitely a good way to spend the afternoon.
oo00oo00oo
"Come ON, Handel, we gotta wun!"
"I'm running, I'm running!"
The newly-reunited twins rushed for the castle entrance as quickly as they could, using every kick, flip, and roll in their arsenal to avoid the riptocs that rushed their escape route.
Greta paused to catch her breath after forcing a pair of rocket-tocs to shoot each other into the walls. "You jus' HAD ta get kidnapped, didn'ya, Handel?"
Handel slid up ahead, pulling out his slingshot and blinding the rocket-toc hiding around the corner. "Look, I said sorry! If it makes you feel better, the lolly was strawberry the whole time!"
"No, that doesn't make me feew bettew!" Greta snapped, catching up to her twin. "You 'n I are gonna have a SEWIOUS talk with HQ when we get home!" Handel could only grumble; it was quite annoying, having to take orders from a girl that was two-and-a-half minutes younger than he was. She couldn't even SAY 'high-security clearance', but hers was higher-leveled.
The twins slid for the door, just barely tumbling out of the castle as its halls began to explode, bombs going off and filling the corridors with fire and smoke. Once out in the safety of the plaza, the twins shared a high-five. Mission 'accompwished'.
Spyro finally caught up with the twins a few moments later, having a hard time connecting them to the explosions taking place in the nearby castle. This mystery girl in the pigtails was quickly turning into another one of Avalar's quirks that he decided not to ask about.
With Spyro speechless, Greta decided to approach the dragon first. "Oh, hi again, Spywo!" She motioned to her twin. "This is my stuwpid bwother, Handel." ("Hey!") "I found him and we finished ouw mission."
"I can...see that."
The blonde dug into her brother's pockets, pulling out a golden scarab and handing it to the dragon hero. "You 'n Ewora 'r wookin' fer these tawismans, wight? Ta go fight Wipto? You c'n take this'un; Handel 'n I swiped it from the soldiers when they weren't wooking."
"Thanks," Spyro accepted flatly, deciding to give up on processing the events. Hearing a commotion beginning to stir in the plaza, he then offered, "Hey, you guys want to tag back to Autumn Plains? It might get kind of dangerous out here."
The twins looked at each other, sharing a quiet laugh. "No thanks, we're good," they answered in unison.
oo00oo00oo
With Spyro gone, the talisman rescued, and the castle blown to pieces, it was finally time for the twins to enact the final part of their plan: finish off the swordstocs.
All of the distractions that they had planted - the flags, the doors, the explosions, even the timely appearance of the dragon - all led to this moment, where the two were now staring down the remaining soldiers, all with their swords at the ready, waiting for them to make the first strike.
Greta smiled, offering a hand to her brother. "You weady, Handel?" Handel nodded, taking his sister's hand.
With their hands joined, the twins shared a long, deep breath. Confused, the leader of the swordstoc army stepped forward, blade pointed and braced for any funny business. Under strict orders to bring the twins back on a plate for Master Ripto, he wasn't about to let them so much as move without meeting his blade.
Except that they didn't move. And his blade was a bit unnerved when it was suddenly staring down a pair of piercing red eyes.
With bloodthirsty smiles, the twins wound up their unlinked arms, two bolts of dark, magical energies appearing in their hands. The army began to back away, but they couldn't move quickly enough. In a shattering blast of darkness, the swordstocs were tossed over the walls of the plaza, all left to drown in the acid moat that surrounded their precious castle. All sent spiraling to their deaths, immobilized by the fear that spouted from those cold, red eyes.
God, Greta, such a little ball of bad-ass. XD Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed! Thanks for reading, see you next time!
§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §