Nathan Charles and Luna Fang: Into the Dragon Realms
By Mutitoon90
Chapter Seven
"So," Elora processed the information that was given to her and Bianca from the group of six, "Gulp's defeated, the fairies are safe, but we're no closer to finding Ripto. This is not looking good."
"Actually," Nathan interjected his thoughts about the situation, "We're closer to finding him."
"Huh?" Crash asked with Spyro and Hunter, "What are you talking about?"
Nathan formed a grin on his lips as he explained himself, stating, "We've cleared two realms without a sign of Ripto anywhere, so we know where he is not at, get it?"
"Nope." The Bandicoot was quick to answer for those that have failed to understand Nathan's words.
"Okay." The dark-haired male sighed out and spoke again; this time, he was less vauge in his explaination, saying, "We've checked out the Lost Realms and Avalor, so we have to look somewhere else. Am I getting through to you now?"
"You're getting here." Hunter spoke out, still sounding somewhat confused of the explaination.
Nathan sighed again, but it was in relief, and he spoke once more, saying, "Where else, besides the two magical realms we were just at, would Ripto hide out at?"
"The Dragon Realms!" Spyro shouted out, startling Crash, who was quick to express his outrage towards the purple dragon.
"Hey! Shouting out like that's not funny!"
"Back off, Crash!" A stern Nathan scolded the orange Bandicoot, "Spyro wasn't trying to be funny at all!"
Still a little shaken from being startled by Spyro's shout, Crash was pouting out of annoyance of Nathan's scolding, which was normally reserved for Luna. The orange-furred mammal was not pleased at all.
"Now," Hunter spoke out, grabbing the attention of the whole group, "we need to make sure that Ripto doesn't get away from us."
"What do you suggest?" The faun asked the cheetah, who was about to say something, but no real answer come from the huge cat's mouth.
"Well, uh... I, uh..."
As Hunter tried to answer Elora's inquiry, Bianca noticed something trying to emerge from the ground near the group and the portal to the Fire Mountains. A few moments after seeing the earth move a little, the she-rabbit saw furry head, which was wearing a purple cap and yellow goggles, pop up from the ground, and Bianca knew who it was immediately.
"Blink!"
Bianca's gasp was heard by the others, telling them that there was someone coming their direction. The shout also grabbed the creature's attention as well as Blink looked at Bianca and the others.
"Finally!" Shouted the mole as he hopped out of the hole he had just made, "I've found ya, Spyro!"
"You know him?" Crash asked the natives of the magical realms, and Elora was the one to answer the question.
"Yeah, that's Blink, the Professer's nephew and a 'fresh-air-a-phobic,' and we don't usually see him above ground, unless something big is going on."
"'Fresh-air-a-phobic?'" Luna laughed as she was listened from Nathan's back, "I thought it was being an agoraphobic."
"Luna!" Nathan scolded at the semi-transformed werewolf, "That's not nice."
Blink, having heard this from both Nathan and Luna, said in response, "I'm just scared of not being trapped underground."
"Not trapped!" Crash repeated in his shock before asking, "You're joking, right?"
"'Fraid not," Blink admitted, "but I can conquer my fears, if there's an emergency."
"Emergency?" Nathan repeated, truly interested in the mole's words. Then, the human had to inquiry Blink, "Is there an one right now?"
"Big time!" The mole with the strapped-on backpack nodded as he confirmed Nathan's concerns, "Ripto's just took over one of the castle's in the Dragon Realms!"
"WHAT!" The group shouted in unison, including the weak werewolf.
"That's what I said!" Blink expressed how it was a surprise to him as well, "If you guys want to know the whole story, my uncle's lab is at the Artisan Homeworld!"
"Right!" Crash nodded the gloved mole, who nodded back before running to and jumping into the hole he had emerged from when he found the group.
"See ya at Uncle's Lab!" Blink said before disappearing into the darkness of the dirt and earth.
"We've got to get going!" Nathan nearly shouted to the others.
"What bothers me the most," the purple reptile expressed his thoughts without any hesiation, "is how that pipsqueak managed to get his small butt into a dragon's castle."
"Agreed." Luna nodded, accidentally digging her chin into Nathan's back, and Nathan's body shook in reaction to the unexpected pain. The werewolf realized what she had done and said, "Sorry about that Nathan."
"It's okay." The male replied in a tone that echoed the pain, "It was an accident."
"Getting back to the problem at hand," Bianca spoke up to the group, "we need to get to the Professor's lab and quick!"
"Of course." Luna almost nodded again; the werewolf stopped herself so that she would not put any more pain into Nathan's back.
"Blink's got a head start!" Crash pointed out, but Nathan was quick to correct the Bandicoot, "This isn't a race."
"Right." Luna agreed with the human male. Then, she added, "Besides, we've got a quicker way. Right, Bianca?"
"Sorry, guys." The light-hued rabbit confessed, "I can't; my magic is still very weak."
"Sorry." The werewolf sheepishly grinned as she realized she had asked too much of the inexperinced sorcress.
"Don't worry about it, Luna." The rabbit responsed to the werewolf, "Besides, I'm pleased to hear that someone has such a strong sense of confidence in my skills."
A smile graced Luna's face, which expressed a sincere look of kindness of understanding, and Crash, who was the only one of Luna's friends that could see her face at the time, knew that Luna saw something in Bianca that the rabbit herself could not see within her own self. The Bandicoot chalked it up to the fact that the female werewolf was an empathic creature and sensitive to magic in many forms.
"Then," Nathan stated strongly, "we better get going before Ripto tries to conquer the Professor's laboratory."
"Then, you guys better leave me behind." Luna stated, which surprised the whole, and Nathan was the most shocked of all of them.
"What are you talking about!?" The dark-haired male asked the female that was resting on his back.
"Don't you realize that I'm just going to get in the way?" Luna's eyes started to fill with tears as she spoke, "In my condition, I can't fight to defend for myself, much less for you guys."
"Luna..." Nathan started to talk, but Crash was quick to speak, saying in a tone that was very unusual for him and earning shocked looks from the others.
"Luna, you're part of the team, and I, for one, am not about to leave you behind, and Nathan will agree with me on this one!"
"Crash..." Nathan was shocked by and pleased of the Bandicoot's actions and words, which reminded the runaway Cortex of why the Bandicoot was his best friend.
"Dude..." Luna laughed as her tears started to roll from her moon-blue eyes, "You sure know what to say and when to say it."
"Come on." Spyro spoke in an unusually soft tone, "We've gotta get going."
"Right." Hunter nodded in agreement as Bianca walked up to the human that was carrying the she-wolf.
"Hey," the rabbit spoke to Nathan in a calm tone, "I'm not able to teleport the whole group to the Professor's Lab, but I can help you out by casting a spell to help you to recover some of your strength."
Then, Bianca muttered a spell, and her hands started to glow with a light, which had a warmth that Nathan noticed as the hands came closer to his skin. As the glowing hands touched the bare skin of the human, Nathan felt the warmth transfer from the rabbit's hands into his own body.
"Wow..." Nathan was astonished by the sight of the fading light that had entered into his body, and he also felt his strength renew itself in his body.
"There." Bianca said once the light had completely faded into the human male's body, "Now, your strength will be able to get Luna to the Professor's Lab without much trouble."
"Much?" Crash asked as one of his eyebrows rose upward at the word he just repeated.
"I think she meant that it'll be mostly the holding grip on Luna's body." Nathan stated to the Bandicoot, who looked at his best friend and Luna, and Crash saw that the werewolf blush a little at Nathan's words.
As Crash chose to say nothing about the werewolf's red face, Nathan started to say something, but he chose against saying what he thought, even if he knew that Luna did not mind being carried by him.
"Let's get going!" Hunter became anxious about getting to the Professor's Lab and stopping Ripto from doing any more damage to the realms.
With that said, Hunter started off, and the cheetah was followed by Spyro and Sparx. Crash ran off after the native allies, and Nathan, who was still carrying Luna on his back, lagged behind. Bianca and Elora maintained a slow pace to help Nathan to readjust Luna, if she slipped out of Nathan's grasp.
An hour passed, and Nathan, Luna, Bianca and Elora managed to catch up with the others, who had reached the portal to Dragon Shores half an hour earlier.
"Took you guys long enough!" Spyro was the only one to complain about Nathan's slow timing, despite the fact that the human male was carrying Luna on his back.
"That's enough, Spyro!" Elora was quick to scold the purple dragon, who was not really fazed by the faun's words.
"Nathan," Crash was concerned about the werewolf and the human, "are you two okay?"
"I'm fine." Nathan responded to the concerned Bandicoot's question. Then, the male spoke to the she-wolf, asking, "How about you?"
"I'm a-okay!" Luna smiled cheerfully, but Crash knew that Luna was trying to hid her weariness from the others.
"If you say so." Crash said, trying to help out Luna a little, and he shoock a little from the cold air of the Winter Tundra.
"Let's get going!" Nathan stated as he and Luna marched into the portal to Dragon Shores and to the Dragon Realms.
"WAIT FOR ME!" Crash ran after his friend, while Hunter, Spyro, Sparx, Bianca and Elora followed the Bandicoot into the portal.
Once the group entered the portal, they had found that they were near a carnival-like area.
"Is this Dragon Shores?" Crash asked the natives, who answered in unison, "Yes."
"Is it always like this?" Luna asked the group, and Spyro was the only one to answer the question.
"Pretty much."
"Looks like a good place to have fun after this whole thing with Ripto is over." Luna stated with a tone of voice that suggested that she wanted to have fun.
"After we take care of Ripto." Nathan remained determined to defeat the wizard that had cursed Luna.
"All right." Luna made no attempt to protest against Nathan's announcement to her.
Led by Spyro, who was quick to take the lead, the group was able to reach the portal that connented Dragon Shores to the Artisan homeworld. However, Spyro's willingness to led the way caused Spyro to accidentally leave the others behind; the only one of the group that could keep up with the purple dragon was Sparx, the dragonfly.
Taking notice of the slow pace of the others, Spyro became annoyed with the others, saying, "Come on! Ripto will conquer the other castles before you guys make it to the portal!"
"Back off, Spyro!" Buzzed Sparx, who was becoming annoyed with the dragon's complaints about the foreigners, mainly Nathan and Luna.
"What!?" Spyro could not believe what he had heard; Sparx was disagreeing with him about the foreign lovers.
"You heard me, Spyro!" The dragonfly's humming voice nearly echoed out, "Those two are in love, but they're not allowing it to distract them from what they have to do! Now, am I right, or am I wrong?"
Spyro almost spoke out in protest, but he could not bring himself say that the dragonfly was wrong about Nathan and Luna.
"Darn it, Sparx!" The dragon huffed out some smoke, upset about being proven wrong about the two humans.
As Spyro admitted defeat to his oldest friend, the group caught up with him and Sparx.
"Hey," Nathan asked upon seeing annoyed dragon, "what's wrong?"
"Nothin'!" Spyro huffed some more smoke, telling the others that he was not forthcoming with his words.
Crash wanted to ask Spyro what was truly wrong, Hunted stopped him by grabbing the Bandicoot's shoulder and saying, "Leave him alone; if he doesn't wanna talk, he won't."
The orange mammal sighed as he hesiantly stepped back, knowing that Hunter could be right about Spyro.
"Let's get going!" Luna moaned, "I'm getting tired from just hanging around."
A laugh was heard from the werewolf and by all of members of the group, but they did not laugh with her, since they knew that Luna was trying to ease the worries of the others. As the laugh died, Luna realized that it was not working.
"Let's go." Nathan calmly announced as he entered the portal, and the others followed him into the Artisan homeworld.
Once in the homeworld of the Artisan dragons, Spyro and Hunter led the group to the Professor's Lab. Much to the surprise of the foreign members of the group, no underlings that were lesser than Crush and Gulp came to attack them.
"That's strange that none of Ripto's footmen has 'come to greet us.'" Nathan stated to the others, and Crash could not help himself from agreeing with the human male as the Bandicoot said, "Yeeeahhh. It's like Ripto's not a major bad guy around these realms."
"In a sense, Crash," Bianca stated in reponse to the statement, "you're right."
"I'm right?" Crash asked, confused with the rabbit's words.
"Yes." The caped rabbit confirmed with a nod of her head, and Elora was quick to say, "But he's still just as dangerous as Red."
"Red?" Crash continued to asked, like a curious child.
"That's for a different time, Crash." Nathan intervened, knowing that Crash could ask questions all day long, if no one stopped him.
"Okay." Crash grinned goofily at Nathan, who smiled back at his closest friend.
Finally, the group reached the Professor's Lab as well as a huge hole at the entrance door to the laboratory.
"What happened here!?" Elora nearly shouted out in her shock as she and the natives of the magical realm, which was led by Hunter, entered the lab through the hole in the doorway.
"By the looks of it," Nathan carefully examined the edge of the opening, while holding Luna on his back, "someone forced their way into the lab."
"Or forced their way out." Crash, wanting to play the detective, stated.
"That's a possiblity," the dark-haired human smiled at Crash, "however there's something about the ground that involves the door; can you tell me where that is?"
The Bandicoot looked at the ground and found nothing that he could link to the door. Crash said to Nathan after a few seconds, "I can't find anything."
"And that tells you what?" The human male asked, and Crash answered after a few more seconds of thought.
"Nothing."
Nathan groaned as he shook his head, and Luna voiced out her own thoughts about Crash being a detective.
"He's got the heart, but not the brain for that line of work."
"You can say that again, Luna." Sighed Nathan as he and Luna entered the lab, following the path Hunter had made.
Crash followed the humans until he saw the male stop. Running to Nathan, the Bandicoot asked, "What's wrong?"
"Looks like they've found someone they know." Luna answered in lieu of Nathan's vocal response.
As the three foreginers watched the natives, Spyro and his friends dug on what appeared to be a monkey dressed up like a space cadet from an old television show that was set in outer space.
"Agent Nine!" Elora gasped out upon seeing the monkey starting to wake up, "What happened here?
A groan was heard, and then Agent Nine spoke out to the group.
"I don't remember... I remember that I was helping the Professer with a project he'd been working on, when..."
With a loud gasp, the primate leapt onto his feet, shouting out, "WHERE'S RIPTO!? I'll zap him from behind, and then to his face, and then I'll wing it with the reminding bullets!"
"Calm down, Agent Nine!" Bianca shouted as she grabbed the monkey's tail, preventing him from going after Ripto.
"Yeah!" Spyro agreed with Bianca, "You've just got out of the rubble. Are you sure you can take him on?"
"Of course I do!" Agent Nine refused to be detered by the others, "Ripto took the Professor!"
"WHAT!?" The group was in shock of the new about the captured Professor.
"So, Ripto busted into the lab?" Crash was still trying to figure out what happened at the door.
"Yes, he did." Luna was more willing to confirm the obvious answer to the Bandicoot than Nathan was.
"Of course, he did!" Shouted the monkey in the space age outfit, "He wanted to make sure that a group of guys he's ticked off don't ask for the Professor's help in catching him!"
"That's why!" Nathan shouted out, "Ripto's starting to get scared of us."
"You?" Agent Nine asked, looking very confused about Nathan's statement, "Why would Dinosquirt be scared of you guys?"
"We'll explain," Luna stated bluntly, "but we must rescue the Professor and soon!"
"Alright!" The monkey leapt into the air with excitement, "We'll get that Ripto yet!"
"First, we rescue the Professor," Nathan announced to the fiery primate, "and then, we'll get back at Ripto in whatever fashion you'd like."
"Sounds like a good plan to me!" Agent Nine pulled out his laser gun and pointed it at Nathan, who shouted out a curse word and ducked onto the ground, shouting, "Put that thing away!"
"Whoa!" Crash gasped before hiding behind a tall machine.
"Hey!" Exclaimed Spyro, who hid himself from Agent Nine's shots with Sparx and Elora, "Watch it with that gun!"
"Calm down!" Bianca shouted out as she hid with Hunter, but her words were meaningless to the trigger-happy monkey.
"This isn't how I wanted to spend my day today." Luna muttered, sounding very annoyed with the monkey's antics.
A few minutes passed, and much to the relief of the group, Agent Nine finally ran out of ammunition, allowing the group to rush at him and to take away his weapon.
"Hey!" Agent Nine shouted in protest, "That's mine! Give it back!"
"Not until we rescue the Professor." Nathan tucked the gun into the backpack, which Luna had been carrying for the whole trip, and placed the backpack to the ground.
"Good idea." The female werewolf, known as Luna, stated, "If Agent Nine wants the gun, he'll have to fight Crash for the pack; all after, Crash wants to get at the food that's in there."
Hearing the she-wolf's words, Crash's face became red with embarrassment, and that told everyone in the room, including Agent Nine, that what Luna had said was the truth.
"Boy..." Agent Nine spoke in a calm voice, "You're just a mess, when it comes to food."
"No kidding..." Nathan spoke, but he sounded like he was having some trouble saying what he wanted to say.
"Nathan?" Crash asked, truly concerned about his closest friend, "What's wrong?"
"I'm... sorry, Crash." Nathan struggled to speak before subccumbing to what he was trying to hold back: his loud laughter.
"Oh, boy..." Crash moaned as the others joined in the human's laughter; the bandicoot knew that it was going to be a little while before the others stop laughing at him.