Blu still looked at the burning forest in front of him, his eyes wide open.
The heat warmed his slightly, but the snow was colder.
The Tiagos came through the portal, but instantly regretted it upon seeing the state of the Ice Claws.
Magnus and the Tiagos transformed into Superion, allowing them to pick up the rubble of the citadel and village.
They moved the remains of the citadel, finding no trace of the infinity stone there.
Blu ran up to the burning house, tearing down the barriers and going inside.
Smoke filled his lungs as he scuttled about, tiptoeing over the bodies of burnt, charred corpses of mothers and chicks.
Blu had tears forming in the corners of his chocolate brown eyes.
The site of the dead made him want to vomit, the motionless bodies of the birds being all Blu could see.
But Blu heard a sound, crying.
Blu looked to a corner in one room, a single burnt and bleeding female snow owl cradling her dead chick, sobbing.
He approached the snow owl, who looked up at him, tear stains being clear on her face.
The owl inced back, "NO stay away! MONSTER!".
"Hey, hey, hey. Don't worry, I'm not Nightfy, my name is Blu", he said, trying to calm down the owl.
"Blu, Gunderson?", she asked, to which our hero nodded.
"The greatest warrior rises", she whispered before leaning back and breathing her last breath.
Blu looked down and sighed, but the silence of the room was interrupted by the sound of a gun clicking as it was primed.
"Не двигайтесь, захватчик" (don't move, invader), said a voice.
Blu turned around to see none other than Josef the crow, aiming a gun between Blu's eyes.
"Hey man, I don't want any trouble. My name is Blu", greeted Blu whilst trying to stay calm.
Josef lowered the gun, "Blu Gunderson?".
Blu nodded, to which Josef began bladdering in russian excitedly, "Святое дерьмо, это ты. Но я ожидал, что ты будешь выше. Но величайший воин на земле прямо здесь передо мной! о мой Бог!" (Holy crap, it is you. But I expected you to be taller. But the greatest warrior on earth is right here in front of me! oh my god!).
"Uh, buddy. I don't know russian, what are you saying?", said Blu.
Josef got himself together and began to speak in broken english, "hellos, I am Josef, am big fan of great warrior Blu. But, I expect taller bird. Others say Blu 3 feet tall, shoot fireballs from beak, lighting from arse and punch mountains in half. But hero still hero to me".
Blu nodded, "You're a fan?".
Josef nodded, "whole world hear of blue bird kill Lai, Prev, Angelus, Reidak and Nigel. You famous, but them say you have missing eye and green beak, why no green beak?".
Blu frowned, "I'll explain later, what I need you to do is spread word. Every bird that wants to fight should go to Africa, defend the final infinity stone".
Josef nodded, "yes comrade", before leaving his destroyed village.
Blu left the burning house, seeing Superion still looking through the citadel wreckage for survivors.
"Superion, let's go home", said Blu glumly, to which the titan nodded before splitting into his components.
Magnus instantly made a portal gun from nanobots and fired, opening a green portal.
Blu went through first, followed by his kids and finally Magnus.
The switch from freezing snow to warm sunlight was jarring for Blu, but he quickly recovered.
He looked around, he was outside the Rio Defense Force command center.
There was a table out front, Bia and Carla sitting at it.
"Enlist in the Rio army, right here", said Bia, talking to a line of about a hundred or so birds.
Several birds were holding paper sheets, using pens to write their names and age on them.
Every time someone finished writing, another would begin.
Blu saw Alex and Skyler leave the building and fly away.
Blu kept a somber expression as he walked into the HQ, where Jewel and the others were.
Jewel saw her mate and smiled, "Hi Blu, did you protect the stone?".
Blu looked down, "No, we were too late".
Jewel frowned, "at least the Ice Claws are still there to fight".
Blu looked at Jewel, "Not anymore, nightfly made sure of that".
This comment attracted the attention of Rico, Rafael Nico and Pedro who had just come to the HQ.
"What?", they asked together.
Blu looked at his friends, "Nightfly locked the women and children in a wooden house, then burnt it down. He took the infinity stone and then killed all but one of the men".
Jewel wore a face of horror, "he killed children?".
Blu nodded, "without remorse".
Their conversation was interrupted by someone calling them on a monitor.
"Hello? Hheelloo", said the voice, who revealed himself to be an African Grey Parrot.
"Uh, hi", greeted Blu, kind of caught off guard by this sudden appearance.
"Hello, who here is blue?", Jewel, Blu and several spix macaws raised their wings.
"No, who here is named Blu?", said the grey parrot, Blu being the only one to raise his wing.
"Oh, hello Blu. You don't know me, but I know you. My name is Remon and I lead the Heart of Power defense force here in Africa. We were wondering if you were coming over to help us defend the stone from Nightfly?".
Blu nodded, "we intend to bring the Rio Army by week's end".
"Oh, good. Without the Ice Claws we are severely weakened", this sentence triggered something in Blu.
"How does he know about the Ice Claws when it happened only 3 hours ago?", Blu murmured.
"Understood, Remon. We'll be there soon", said Blu before the video cut out.
Blu turned to Jewel, "Be weary of that bird, Jewel. He knew about the Ice Claws only hours after, and no one else was there with us".
Jewel nodded, "Okay, should we see what information there is on him?".
Blu shrugged, "sure, I'm going to go clear my head".
Blu then left the building and flew to the Christ Redeemer statue.
The blue macaw soared through the clear, blue skies of Rio De Janeiro, inhaling the fresh air.
"Ah Rio, this is home", he whispered to himself before looking down, "I hope I'll come back here after this fight".
Blu landed on the right arm of the white statue, admiring the look of the city from his height.
He smiled, it had been so long since he had a view like this.
He heard the flutter of wings behind him, echoing in his mind.
He turned to see, The Darkness and Blue Phoenix.
In reality he was looking at nothing, the 2 birds were in his head.
"Oh, hey guys", greeted our hero.
"Hi Blu, long time no see", returned blue phoenix.
Darkness stepped forward and hugged Blu, "we heard about Nightfly and we're here to give you the powers you need".
Blu shook his head, "No, if there is a piece of Lai inside me-".
Blue Phoenix slapped him, "Shut up, you're facing someone more powerful than Lai. You need these powers if you have any hope of beating Nightfly".
Blu shook his head, "you're right. Very well, give me the powers".
Darkness smiled before giving Blu the Darkness power, and Blue Phoenix gave Blu the Dragon Strength.
Blu clenched his beak in pain, the powers still stinging like when he first got them.
The blue macaw looked back at the 2 birds, to see they were gone.
"Huh, strange".
Blu decided he had been out long enough, but he wanted to try his powers out again.
Blu jumped off the statue, flapping his wings to gain speed and altitude before arriving to an empty soccer field.
Blu landed on the turf with a light thud, scanning the field to make sure there were no civilians.
"Alright, let's try something simple first", he made a blue fireball and threw it into the air.
When it blew up, beams of blue lightning exploded out, "HOLY CRAP!", yelled Blu as he dodged a bolt.
"Okay, so my thunder abilities have fused with the Dragon Strength, what about the darkness?", Blu allowed the 2 viper heads to pop out of his shoulders, the snakes showed their fangs.
The fangs dripped blue, electric venom.
"Well, I guess the vipers are going to 'shock' the crowd", he laughed at his word play.
"Why am I so funny when no one is around?", he asked but received an answer.
"Or when I'm around", said a voice.
Blu whipped around to see… Nightfly.
"Nightfly!?", asked Blu, quickly preparing his powers.
Nightfly chuckled, "try and hit me, blue boy".
Blu fired a fireball, but it went right through his foe.
"What the?", Blu asked.
"This is a hologram numbnuts", taunted Nightfly, "I came here to bring you a message".
A small, rainbow, portal opened with a scroll falling out from it.
The scroll rolled towards Blu, who picked it up and read it.
Our hero's eyes widened by the news on the paper.
"That's right, I challenge you to a one-on-one duel to the death in Africa, the day my army invades. The terms? You lose, I get the infinity stone. You win, well I die. But that is impossible. So do you accept?", Nightfly held out a wing to shake.
Blu still looked at the scroll, his wing staying still.
Nightfly sighed, "perhaps you need some… encouragement. How about this, if you refuse I will hunt down everyone you love and burn them inside out, destroy their souls. I will make you watch the life fade from your wife and kids, watch death envelop all those you love and hold dear. Now, do you accept?".
Blu reluctantly stretched his wing and shook with Nightfly, this last one grinning wildly.
"Well, you have training to do and I have an army to forge, so see you on the field of battle", said Nightfly before disappearing, the only thing remaining being the scroll.
Blu's trembling wing held the scroll, the sky got dark and a gentle rain began.
Out hero disabled his powers and began to fly back to base.
As he was flying he heard the sound of wings behind him, he turned to see Alex and Skyler.
"Hey Blu", greeted Alex before noticing Blu's demeanor, "what's wrong?".
Blu did not answer, he just handed Alex the scroll, the owl taking it in his talons.
The owl's reaction upon reading it told a million words, most of them being 'you're screwed'.
Alex did not ask questions, he just mulled over what was going to happen.
Skyler whispered to Alex, asking what happened.
Ales reluctantly whispered back the events, leaving Skyler silent.
The trio soon came to the front door of the base, landing outside and walking in.
Blu was met with a hug from Jewel, which he didn't return.
Instead he dropped the scroll on the floor and walked to one of the computers inside the base, he pressed a single button and called someone.
Jewel was perplexed and looked at Alex and Skyler, "what's wrong with Blu?".
Alex said nothing, he just picked up the scroll and handed it to Jewel.
Jewel opened and read it, "Oh no".
Blu waited for the guy on the other end of the call to pick up.
Soon, an image of a hawk with a cowboy hat popped up on screen.
"Well, I'll be darned if it ain't Blu. How ya doin' lad", greeted the hawk.
"Hey Finn, look I need to call in a serious favor", said Blu.
Finn nodded, "sure, what is it?".
"I need you to gather all the soldiers you can from North America, Frozen Fjord to Miami. Take them to Africa, we have a fight with a god".
Finn nodded, "alrighty, tell Alex I said hi".
The computer turned off, Blu turning around to see Jewel looking at him.
"Blu, what were you thinking? Agreeing to a one-on-one match against Nightfly, he'll kill you! ", she said, quite angry.
Blu sighed, "If I refused he'd kill you, the kids, the entire tribe, Rico, Rafael, Nico, Pedro, Magnus, Zain, Alex, Skyler, everyone. I had no choice".
Jewel put on a face of sorrow, "If so, then we're going to have to start training, you can't beat Nightfly with just your Thunder abilities".
"Actually jewel, I now have the Darkness and Blue Phoenix back, so I'm much more powerful".
"Really?", asked Jewel skeptically.
Blu proved it by launching the vipers out of his shoulders, "Believe me now?".
Jewel nodded before turning to Alex, "Alex, get Rico, Rafael, Nico and Pedro. Begin training Blu as hard as you can".
Alex nodded, "okay, let me get my stuff and the rest of the team, then we'll begin training Blu".
Alex and Skyler then flew off to prepare, leaving Blu and Jewel alone.
Blu got up and walked to Jewel, putting his right wing around her.
"Y'know, Jewel. If we survive this I'll probably retire from tribe leader, maybe let Tiago or Bia take the reins for a while", he said while smiling.
Jewel looked at Blu, "I think you still have a few good years left before retirement, my lovehawk".
Blu smiled, "You flatter me too much".
"Well, you are the greatest warrior on earth, so you've earned it".
Blu shrugged, "I suppose I did".
Alex and Skyler soon returned, "alright, Blu. Let's go and train"said Alex.
Blu smiled and followed the 2 owls out of the warehouse.
Okay, chapter 5 done.
Probably a couple more chapters left, but please review.