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Spyro the Dragon, both the game and all related characters (c) Insomniac. They own the Spyro that's in this story, so nyeh.
Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon, as well as all related characters (c) blah-blah, same copyright.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: Speedsters
The Tiki Lodge was one of the biggest hot spots of the Forgotten Worlds. Creatures from all over the Sunrise Spring homes knew about the hot parties of the Tiki Lodge: their nightly activities, their festive giveaways, their upbeat soundtrack...between the party atmosphere and the waterfalls of lava, Spyro could've easily mistaken Molten Crater for the Magma Cone. (THAT would be one wild party.)
However, Spyro didn't get his chance to see the Tiki Lodge for himself. The door was locked. Standing up on his hind legs, the Artisan reached high enough to find a scrawly note hammered into the impenetrable door: "Hate to be a party-crasher, but the Tiki Lodge is MINE now! Run along, dragon - you'd need a rocket-launcher to break through THIS wall!"
Spyro tore the note from the door as he read the signature, flaming the paper into oblivion. It was signed by the Sorceress. The fact that she was holding the Tiki Lodge hostage could only mean two things. One, the purple dragon owed Clay an apology. He had quite a bit of a tantrum when he heard that the Crater was being overrun because the local tikis wouldn't leave their precious lodge. Two, she must have hidden eggs in there. Why else work so hard to bar off a simple lodge?
The Sorceress was right, though. The Artisan simply couldn't muscle his way inside, so he'd have to return another time.
This allowed Spyro to pay mind to a more-pressing matter; namely, Moneybags' not-so-nonchalant post outside of another door, which could only mean he was waiting for something. The Artisan assumed he was that 'something', so he glided to the balcony where the bear was waiting. "Sorry, Moneybags, but the lodge is closed right now," he teased. "What're you doing here?"
"Well, I didn't want to waste the trip on being turned away from the Tiki Lodge," Moneybags answered with a stretch. "So these two gentlemen happened to rush by and paid me a small fortune to watch their hideout. Fast little things, they were. You might do well to challenge them to a race."
"Oh, really? What'd they look like? Maybe I saw them."
"Didn't get a good look at their faces, I'm afraid. They were all wrapped up in these cloths, and-"
"...And you could only see their beady, little eyes?"
"Yes, just the ones! Goodness, Spyro, you-"
"And they were super-fast and had really high-pitched, annoying laughs?"
"Well, I wouldn't want to be offensive, but-"
"Were they carrying dragon eggs?"
The bear froze, unsure of how to answer. He hadn't even considered Spyro's quest for the dragon eggs when he agreed to let the thieves hide out on the racetrack. What could he do? Admit he was helping two of the unhatchlings be sold on the black magic market? Perhaps he could play dumb; insist there were no dragon eggs at all! Oh, but if Spyro got inside the hideout-
Moneybags' silence told Spyro all he needed to know. "Moneybags, open the door."
"N-Now, Spyro, let's not get testy about this," Moneybags laughed, tugging at his collar to release some steam as he began to sweat from the heat of Spyro's glare. "I-I'm sure that those two are fine, upstanding gentlemen that-"
"Don't play dumb with me, Moneybags!" Spyro snorted, tripping the bear over and jumping on top of him for the ultimate glaredown. "Those are egg thieves in that hideout, and you KNOW it. Now you're gonna open the door and let me chase them down so I can get those eggs back, and I WON'T throw you in the lava pits for endangering a baby dragon, GOT IT?!"
Moneybags stayed speechless as he clamored for the switch and opened the door. If he dared to speak, he couldn't have managed more than a ladylike shriek. With the passage open, Spyro blasted Moneybags with a warning of burning smoke, then turned tail and rushed inside.
The Tiki Lodge Racetrack was yet another of the fantastic adventures that could be had to the lodges' party-hardy members. The tikis didn't understand how or why their track worked the way it did, only that it was fast and almost as much fun to run as it was to watch another tiki run and smash into a wall so hard his head popped off.
Spyro, on the other hand, recognized the track immediately. The glittering arrows were hard to miss, especially after all of the time he spent on them in the High Caves and the Tree Tops. The supercharge, returned to its perfect form, the way he knew it before the Professor's towers took priority in Avalar.
Up until this moment, Spyro struggled to picture the Forgotten Worlds as they were a thousand years ago, still filled with magic and dragons. The supercharge, however, cleared the picture. He could see a young batch of Peacekeeper dragonlets (himself and Flame included) as they'd be brought from the fiery lava pits to practice their charging, seeing dragon after dragon round the course in a blaze of speed and glory.
"Nyeh-nyeh-ne-nyeh-nyeh! Heehehehee!"
Perhaps one day, dragons would return to the Forgotten Worlds. Before that, though, the ones that were stolen had to be returned. And Spyro didn't hesitate for a second to dive after the pair of egg thieves that accidentally showed their faces.
oo00oo00oo
While Spyro was trying to "save" the Tiki Lodge (and clearly not goof off, as Hunter assumed he was), his cheetah sidekick was tackling a much more dangerous task: getting a few laps on the Mushroom Speedway before Spyro could show up. With their collection of twenty dragon eggs, the broken portal at the top of the hill sparked to life, revealing the fabled Mushroom Speedway. Hey, getting a chance to learn the course would be his only chance against Spyro, right? Hunter was naturally fast, and training in the Dragon Realms only enhanced that fact, but no gizmo in the world could help him outfly a dragon.
His weapon of choice this time was a plane, designed to handle like one of the butterflies, who were the local course champions. With his super-souped engine, he stood a chance. And for once, that chance seemed pretty-
BOOM! On Hunter's final lap of the race-course, his plane took a terrifying spin downwards as a bright energy blast smashed into his engines and caused him to spiral out of control. After a scream and a panicked grasp for every control he could reach, Hunter just barely got his ship upright and regaining altitude.
The cheetah looked around. The butterflies couldn't have had energy cannons, right? "HEY! Who did that?!"
WHOOSH! Hunter was forced to duck as another ship flew straight over his head, shaving a few hairs off of his ears, and pulled an aileron roll to avoid another of those shining energy blasts. The enemy vessel was a UFO, a silver spinning disc that Hunter only saw once before and thought he'd never see again.
And to confirm his suspicions, the top popped open to reveal a sheep, which gave a menacing bleat before retreating into its ship.
Flying sheep saucers, the scourge of Metropolis. According to the Engineer Drone, a herd of fodder-sheep that were brought into the Tundra for Spyro got mixed up in her experiments for the superflame/superfly that eventually helped them send Ripto plummeting to a molten grave. The sheep became super-intelligent, creating an army of UFOs and terrorizing Metropolis with energy cannons...but not before dumping cows into the same accident zone, creating strange, mutant space-cows with the knowledge and ammunition to become laser-masters. (They also could've been the one in charge of the bomb-ox in Centerwing, but the locals were certain it came from a different lab accident.)
The flying sheep fleet was said to be destroyed while Spyro test-ran the superflame/superfly. So why was there a sheep saucer here in the Forgotten Worlds?!
"Alright, Hunter, this is no time to ask questions," the cheetah said, a self-pep talk as he lowered his goggles and reached for his thruster engines. "It's time to be a hero."
Kicking his thrusters to maximum, Hunter blasted off towards the sheep saucer, which shot another energy blast before ducking into the spider tunnels. Hunter sped into the tunnels after it, sending a spray of mini-missiles the sheep's way. (Not that he planned on using those guns against the butterflies or Spyro during the race. At all.) As the chase pulled out of the tunnel, the missile spray left several dents in the wall, right before blowing over a giant dandelion. No luck hitting the sheep, which nearly got another lucky hit as it weaved through the mushroom forest.
Hunter kept up the chase, though. This was his true moment to shine, his chance to be the hero and save the day - the first time he could do so since Spyro's appearance in Avalar the year before. Much like the sheep saucer, Hunter was determined not to let this chance escape.
BA-BOOM! With a well-aimed shot, the sheep saucer went down in a flurry of flames. "Aw, yeah!" Hunter cheered. "Who's the man? I'm the man! Who's the man? I'm the man! Who's-"
Thunk. "Ow!" The cheetah's moment of self-indulging glory was cut short as a piece of debris from the ship flew into his plane, smashing him in the head. "Y'know what, sheep?!"
Hunter went to throw the debris back, assuming it to be a last-ditch attack. However, he stopped to look before chucking it into the ocean. It wasn't a piece of ship at all, but rather a glistening egg dotted with sparkles of pink and purple.
It was a dragon egg. And if the sheep saucer had it, it could only mean one thing: they'd be back.
Sorry for the lack of witty banter; it's a sleepy Saturday at TMHQ. XD Anyway, join us next week and see where our heroes' adventure takes them! While you're waiting, make sure to check out my profile and maybe pitch into my multiverse collaboration. :) Thanks for reading, guys, hope you enjoyed!
§ Tucker's Mayflower, signing off! §