Here is Chapter 4, with a familiar scene from the previous story, given the title.
Ch4: Déjà vu
Sand did nothing but envelop the wasteland landscape, both on the ground and in the air. Storms could be nothing but a calm, yet irritating breeze, or a heavy sand squall that could tear the flesh from your bones if you were foolish enough to be stuck in it. Fortunately, the worse of the storms had yet to come, and all was as calm as it could be in the desert. Even the volcano at the center of the isle was dormant, though the inside of the geographical landmark was anything but. In fact it was actually quite fertile, a sort of oasis inside the desert, but it wasn't peaceful, for hostile creatures like metalheads had made their home here. But hey, in a dangerous environment like this, makes sense the creatures would be dangerous too. However there was something other than wild creatures present in this volcano, something far more hazardous. A dark satellite had fallen on this volcano quite some time ago, and had integrated itself at the mouth. Some of the locals had even sent an monk expedition to this mountain to investigate it, but they never returned. However that did not stop other people from trying. In fact there was one such adventurer that was climbing up the cliff toward the satellite right now, with his orange furred sidekick right beside him. As soon as he reached the top of the cliff, his cohort ran ahead of him toward what appeared to be a frozen corpse, holding some sort of dark idol in its hands.
"Looks like it didn't agree with him," said Daxter reaching out to grab it.
"Don't touch it Daxter!" warned Jak, "who knows what more Dark Eco would do to you."
"Look at me Jak," Daxter replied gesturing to himself, "I'm short, I'm hairy, and I itch in strange places, I couldn't do worse." Jak did nothing but shake his head.
"Relax, I know what I'm doing," said Daxter, and reached out to grab it again. "Oh yuck!" he repulsed at the sudden realization he would have to touch the rotting hands of the corpse. "Cold, clammy dead hands…oh I can't look." He finally grabbed the idol and tugged at it trying to pry it loose. It was a minor struggle, but it suddenly came loose, flew up in the air and started falling toward Daxter!
"LOOK OUT DAXTER!" yelled Jak diving in and grabbing the idol in just the nick of time. Before he had a chance to take a breath, the idol suddenly started glowing in his hands, and within a snap, Jak's body disappeared!
"Jak? Jak? Where are you buddy?" Daxter asked looking around. Jak suddenly dropped the idol, smashing it to pieces, and he was visible once again.
"It's a dark power Dax," he said with shock, "some kind of...invisibility."
"Yeah? Well cut it out!" yapped Daxter, before yelling back at him recalling a painful memory. "If you had moved that fast a long time ago, I would still be wearing pants! You know what I really miss? Soft underpants, know how it lifts and cradles? Ahhh" Jak just stood silent, for there was nothing to say.
"You wouldn't understand, come on we're out of here," Daxter said walking away from the satellite, Jak followed behind leaving the satellite and corpse in peace.
Setting: Dragon Realms Precursor Temple
The aliens screeched as they lunged at Spyro, he quickly got into a defensive stanch and prepared to attack. When they were only 10 feet away, he let loose a fire inferno from his mouth which engulfed the five land creatures in fire. They screamed even louder and started jumping up and down trying to extinguish the flames. Spyro then lunged back with his claws drawn. He attacked the first alien with a three claw attack, sending it down on the ground. One of the aerial aliens started shooting dark streams of energy toward Spyro, which he agilely dodged first to the left, then to the right and then overhead. One of the aliens on fire nearly extinguished his flames and then drew back his arm generating a cloud of purple energy in his hand. Spyro was firing an electricity bolt at an aerial alien before he was met with a dark energy bomb flying his way.
BOOM!
Spyro was flown back toward the wall, heavily shaken from the surprise attack by the land alien. The aliens had just finished extinguishing the flames Spyro had inflicted upon them. When they saw that Spyro was down, they started lurking back toward him hoping to finish the job. Spyro was just raising his head and shaking the cobwebs loose as he tried to readjust his vision. He could see four duplicates of everything around him, including the aliens, so it was like seeing 32 of them. Knowing he was in no shape to fight right now, he made a defensive move. Channeling his earth energy, he surrounded himself in a rock laced shell as he attempted to regather his senses.
The aliens halted upon seeing what had just conjured around the purple dragon. One however moved closer and took a claw and placed it on the rock shell. He then started a slashing move and hit it, followed by another slash, and then soon, his friends had joined in and were clawing at Spyro's rock guard together. Inside the rock, Spyro was trying to focus, regather his senses so he could launch another attack. He took a deep breath, trying to relax despite the attacks that were being unleashed on his shield.
Cynder had finally decided to get up, she just couldn't sleep anymore, mainly it was out of curiosity and worry where Spyro would go in the middle of the night. She didn't think he was in the temple, they had already concluded they had gathered everything of value in there. She decided to get a quick drink from the nearby spring, something to relax her after a rather uneventful afternoon.
She turned toward the temple, and was wondering why she felt uneasy, as if something in the temple had been overlooked, or someone was one step ahead. She decided the temple was worth another look, even though it was in the middle of the night. She slowly walked toward the temple, so as not to disturb the others.
The aliens continued clawing at Spyro's rock shield, they had broken nearly halfway through. Spyro was still concentrating, keeping his eyes closed through the tension of maintaining the shield, for once it dropped, he knew he would be under attack. The aliens had nearly broken through, one was able to get his claw through the shield and was reaching for Spyro. Suddenly the shield was enveloped in yellow light, and the aliens halted their attack and slowly stepped back as the light grew stronger and stronger, and then exploded.
ZZZBOOMM!
An electrical outburst blew the aliens off their feet as Spyro released a heavy pulse of energy. They all ended up on the floor, save for the aerial aliens who flew a bit further back from the dragon as the energy dissipated. Spyro took a few deep breaths trying to regather his strength after expending the energy. The aerial aliens weren't going to give them the chance. They started shooting at Spyro, causing him to inch back toward the portal the aliens had opened. Their shooting continued causing Spyro to retreat further, he looked behind to see the maw of the portal right behind him. He stood his ground, for he knew one misstep could land him in an unknown location, and that was one trip he preferred not to make.
Cynder had just walked into the hallway and hadn't experienced anything out of the ordinary, though she did hear some strange noises that aroused her suspicion. She was about to approach the staircase, until she saw something that grabbed her attention, a strange footmark she had never seen before, along with a footmark she did recognize, Spyro's print. She looked ahead, starting to feel a shade of panic.
"Spyro," she whispered, and then suddenly rushed to the staircase.
Spyro shot fireballs at the aerial aliens trying to drive them back, but the aerial attackers were nearly as agile as Spyro, and were taking advantage of his disorientation. However, their advantage was the least of Spyro's problems, as the portal started to hum even louder than before. Then, for the second time in his life, Spyro felt it again, the suction of the portal. Instinctively, he dug his claws into the ground to prevent being dragged in.
"Here we go again," he stuttered. The aliens stood up, as if they were not affected by the portal vacuum. Then they did something Spyro didn't expect, they ran right past him and all eight of them jumped into the portal. Spyro was slightly shocked, he expected they would want to finish him, but he now understood why they came here in the first place. Now he had to deal with the pull of the portal. The force was growing stronger and he could feel his claws dragging on the floor. He tensed his muscles further to prevent being dragged any further, only to no avail. His claws were about to slip, then suddenly he looked up to see a surprise. Cynder had made her way down after him!
"Cynder!" he yelled.
"Spyro!" she screamed.
"Stay back or it will take you too!" one paw came loose, and the other was about to follow.
"I'm not leaving you!" yelled Cynder.
"Stayyy," he started, just after his paw gave way, "BAAACCKKK!" he disappeared into the vortex.
Cynder could only scream, "NOOOO!"
There was nothing around but a blue spinning vortex that seemed to stretch to infinity. As ethereal as the environment was, it was something Spyro was quite familiar with, as he felt himself tumbling without end through the vortex. Although this time he was alone, no Sparx and no Cynder were here with him this time, and he had no idea where he would end up on this trip. All he could do was hang on tight as he flew through tunnel. The exit seemed to be approaching, as the blinding light was becoming even greater further ahead of him.
Setting: Elorin Wasteland
Calidan was busy re-organizing his shop area, some of his scrap metal finds had been mixed with his tools, creating a big cluster pile, and was taking his time to clean everything up. The mess was due to the big project he was working on, he had it nearly assembled, but was missing two critical components, an ample power source, and a stabilization conduit, which was rare if not impossible to find in the wasteland. He was always sneaking into Marauder camps to find parts for his toys, and he enjoyed every moment of it. Outsmarting those marauders was good fun for him. He dared not try to sneak into Spargus to scavenge for materials, he knew he was not only outnumbered if he went there, but outmatched as well as the Spargus wastelanders possessed firepower beyond his resources, not to mention stealing from Damas's kingdom would inevitably make him an enemy. Becoming an enemy of the desert king would ultimately make him a dead one, and he preferred dealing with the wasteland where he knew he had a chance to survive.
"Been quite a profitable day Rob, managed to scavenge some ammunition from the Marauder camps, they'll work well with the Omega Fire I recovered last week," he said as he put his tools away. He then picked up the ammunition box in his scrap box and placed it on the table. Next, he opened a cabinet above the table, which housed his firearms, each locked on the trigger with a key combination. He typed in the combination for one, a short red tipped automatic rifle like firearm with a large circle on top and two small barrels right below it. He took it out of the cabinet and opened his ammunition box. He took a few rounds out and placed them in the stock.
"I'm gonna go test these new rounds out, then call it a day," he said. He put on his desert scarf and goggles and walked over to a small gate latched into the wall. He unlocked and opened it to reveal a small tunnel into the rock. He then crawled in and closed the gate behind him. It was pitch black for a moment, until he pressed a switch on the side of his goggles and a flashlight lit up, lighting the way. He walked along for about five minutes until he came to the end of the tunnel. There was a ladder at the end, which extended into a shaft leading to the surface. He climbed up to another locked gate, which he unlocked with a turn of a mechanical switch. Up above the surface, he found himself in the center of a series of degraded structures, ruins of some kind that had been unveiled by wasteland storms over the years. It was here that he found his shooting range, a little retreat away from his hideout. He closed the hatch and he unlatched the Omega Fire from his back and took aim at the makeshift targets on the far wall. He was about to fire, until a blinding flash lit up the sky!
SHOOMM!
Calidan looked up at the sky while regathering his vision and could just barely make out a shimmering light illuminating from the Monk Temple. He went wide-eyed, wondering what could be the cause of such an event.
Elsewhere in the desert city of Spargus, the wastelanders were going about their business, whether it was gathering food and water from the wells and markets, or cleaning their guns. Maybe it was chasing out annoying desert vermin from their homes, either way it was just another day in survivors paradise, provided there wasn't a large sandstorm heading their way. Only then would everyone barricade themselves indoors and prepare for the worst. However their day was about to be interrupted in the most unforeseen way…
SHOOMM!
The whole sky seemed to be enveloped by a glimmering light, catching everyone's attention, including that of the city's ruler from his tower palace. Looking out his large windows he took notice of the source, the Monk Temple located at the south end of the wasteland. He was akin to wonder, what could it mean?
