The Legend of Spyro: Cross World: Alliances

Chapter 1: Origins


Synopsis: Cross World serves as an alternate universe to the TLoS series where humans are conducting teleportation experiment and an experiment brought a group of test subjects to Dragon Realms. With absolutely no reinforcements and firepower to help defend them from the evil that threatens the land, the survivors must work together with the dragons and their allies to ensure not only their survival but the survival of the world they are in. This story will split into three parts coinciding with the three TLoS games.


Kansas Advanced Research Center

Date: 14th October 2120

Subject: 1st Lieutenant Eugene Pelzer

POV

Not to say that I'm honored to be part of this but I was forced to participate in this research conducted by a group of 'mad scientists'. Personally, I feel that we should leave nature alone and playing with nature is like tinkering with an atom bomb and you have no inkling on what activates what. If things go wrong, your only wish is that death comes quickly. Just a week ago, the research team at KARC made a major breakthrough in teleportation technology. By bending space and time with adequate gravitational power, they managed to create a hole between dimensions. This means that we can go anywhere we want with a push of a button but there's a catch. All receiving ends of the wormholes are randomized, meaning that the other end of the hole can be any place. May it be another planet, a star…or even null space, trust me, I've seen everything. The government is eager to find victims for their research and it so happens that I'm one of them. The reason they gave was Neil Armstrong's famous quote: "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind". Yeah right, I bet that travelling to the moon was far easier than walking straight into death's mouth. It's still in prototype stage and no sane man will enter it. I can guarantee that all of us are sane and the government officials are…well…a little wrong in the head. Let me tell you what happened.

"Eugene Pelzer, right? So glad you could come," a female scientist said while extending her hand for me to shake.

"That's 1st Lieutenant Pelzer to you, ma'am. You may be glad but I'm not exactly happy to be here," I replied as I shook her hand. It felt cold.

She merely smiled at me and opened the door to the test chamber where the portal was housed. It looked like a platform with five sharp claws sticking out from the sides, as if trying to grab whoever stood on that platform. I can't really blame them for their designs. They were scientists, not designers.

"So that's Portal-001. Looks like death's claw if you ask me," I quipped.

"A little sci-fi inspiration doesn't hurt, Lieutenant. Anyway, let me introduce you to your team members," the scientist said.

Seated at a corner were five men and two women and all of them looked uncertain. Who's to blame when they must have been forced to participate in this crazy experiment?

"This is a group composed of professionals that will be essential for survival in the new world. The man with a backpack is survival expert Dmitri Cherenkov. He is Russia's finest survivalist and a resourceful one too. That man beside Cherenkov is Juan Rodriguez, a Spanish geologist and mineralogist. Again, he's Spain's finest. Next to Juan is Wolfgang Kohler, a German field medic and biologist.

I raised an eyebrow. "Wolfgang Charcoal-maker?"

"It's just a surname, dummkopf. No one bothers about the meaning of it," Wolfgang told me.

"Anyway, the fourth man is Breno Prazeres, a Portuguese gunsmith and marksman. He won many gold medals for the Olympic shooting events you know," the female scientist said with a smile.

"Gee, that's awesome," I said sarcastically.

"The fifth man is your commanding officer in the military: General John Brooke. He'll be leading the expedition and your orders come directly from him."

"What a surprise, Eugene. I didn't expect you to be a victim as well," my officer said with a wry smile.

"I wasn't expecting you as well, sir. It's all a surprise," I answered with a salute.

"I'll take it from here, Marianna. The two ladies are Hanami Ishikawa and Sarah Monroe respectively. Hanami is a journalist and part-time radar operator in the military while Sarah is a negotiator and a SWAT unit," Brooke said.

I looked at Hanami and at the others with worries running through my mind. I wasn't worried about Sarah if combat occurs but I was worried for the others. Fortunately, my commanding officer read my thoughts and enlightened me.

"The others, though civilians, have been trained to use firearms in case of combat. All of them are trained in different forms of martial arts as well for self defense. Trust me, Pelzer, I've seen them at the shooting range and they shoot like no soldier can shoot. They're the best," he said with an assuring smile.

I've worked long enough under his command to trust that smile of his. He is a man of his words and he never lets us down. I nodded my head in response to his assurance. He turned to the female scientist, Marianna, and pointed at the portal casually.

"So what are our objectives?" he asked.

"Your objectives are to live on an alien world for at least a year with limited supplies, gather any information about the natives, if any, and establish an outpost with a portal so we can have a definite location to teleport to whenever we feel that research on that particular world is needed. That way, we can avoid randomized locations," Marianna explained.

"Don't mind me asking, Marianna, but what's in it for me? All of my team members have specialties and I feel like I'm the odd one out," I said.

"I needed a trusty second-in-command, Pelzer. I recommended you to the KARC board of directors and they submitted your name to the government. It has been approved. I chose you because you're the most competent and coolheaded one even in tight situations. I couldn't ask for a better soldier," General Brooke answered for her.

Well, that was a rare compliment coming from him. Usually, he criticizes us and not often do we see him give compliments.

"Anyway," he continued, "we should probably get started now. I'm assuming that all of you have brought along the necessary equipments and weapons?"

All of us nodded and I did a final check on my assault rifle to make sure it was in working condition. It had a half empty clip so I ejected the clip and slapped in a fresh one with a satisfying click.

"Wait, how the hell are we supposed to build a portal when none of us have any idea on its mechanisms?" Dmitri asked.

"That is why we gave you all blueprints and detailed instructions on how to build it," Marianna replied plainly.

"It better not be full of technical jargons. If it is, I'd rather if you guys took my place and build the portal yourself," the Russian replied.

"Too bad because we're not allowed to participate in this. If we could, I would've sent extra support," Marianna countered.

I shook my head slowly. This wasn't right at all and I can see that everyone is agitated. Even General Brooke showed signs of uneasiness despite being well-known for being calm. He was tapping his right foot and that was his habit of showing how uneasy he was. What were they thinking, trying to get someone inexperienced to build portals which they don't even know how to operate? Even worse, we could not contact each other because radio waves do not travel between dimensions. We're all alone.

"Well, if you guys have no other questions, let us begin," Marianna said with a smile.

Her team did final checks before initiating portal activation. The middle of the platform sputtered and spark before a small rift appeared and grew bigger until it seemed like the claws were grabbing the portal. We saw random locations at the other end of the portal passing by ranging from ice worlds to deep space. The occasional suction really scared the daylights out of us but luckily we were able to grab on to something. After twenty seconds and hundreds of randomized locations later, the team stopped the randomization procedure and the portal showed nothing but a dark sky with two celestial bodies at the background and one of them was half full.

"Wherever this is, it sure isn't deep space. There's no suction," Wolfgang remarked.

"Then why are we facing nothing but the sky? Surely there must be ground somewhere," Juan added.

General Brooke peered into the portal and looked around. After a while, he turned around and faced us.

"We'll be needing parachutes," he flatly.

We knew what he meant and luckily, we had parachutes strapped to our backs. Without any complaints from any of us, we took turns jumping into the portal. I was the last one to jump and before I did so, I took one last look at the lab and took a deep breath.

"You're afraid of heights?" Marianna asked.

I looked at her and shook my head. "I'm a marine for twelve years and I've done multiple combat drops over Afghanistan and on home soil. Dropping from the sky is nothing to me," I answered cockily, though I actually feel a bit nervous all the time.

After that, I jumped.

***

"Save them! The Dark Armies have come!" Volteer warned as Ignitus felt the temple shake.

Ignitus hesitated for a while before taking the purple egg and escaping the temple with it in his paws. He took to the night skies and flew towards a mushroom-filled swamp. Ignitus landed near a river and looked around for a while. After determining that sending the egg away via river is safe, he took a mushroom cap and placed the egg in the cap's groove before pushing it into the river.

"May the ancestors look after you. May they look after us all," Ignitus said as he watched the egg float away.

With those words, he flew back to the temple to check on things but he only saw something that horrified and saddened him.

***

Dawn broke and someone landed near the swamps. Lieutenant Pelzer landed after seven minutes of parachuting. He thought that he was with his team but apparently, they got separated and he was alone. He quickly unstrapped his parachute pack and surveyed his surroundings. All he saw was giant mushrooms and tall cliffs covered with more giant mushrooms and it made Lieutenant Pelzer feel small.

"This is truly an alien world. I've never seen such big mushrooms in my life," he said to himself.

He noticed a river not far from him and he was thirsty so he went towards it and filled his water bottle. He tasted the water and held it in his mouth. Confident that the water was safe to drink, he drank the water from his water bottle before filling it up again. Pelzer lit a flare and threw it across the river and into an opening, hoping that the green smoke rose high enough for his team mates to see, assuming that they were on high ground and not far from where he was.

"This is Lieutenant Pelzer, please respond," he said through his walkie-talkie.

No one answered and it was full of static. Pelzer tried again and got the same results.

"I guess I'll have to find them myself. Just hope nobody comes this way," he muttered.

He did not see an egg in a mushroom cap float by as he already turned his back towards the river and walked away. And so, the cradle floated further into the swamps.

***

The egg floated and floated down the river until it came to a stop near a river bank. It was noticed by a family of dragonflies and they went near it, wondering what magnificent creature could possibly live inside.

"What do you think is inside that egg?" Flash, the father, asked.

"I don't know but I can guarantee it's not a dragonfly," his wife, Nina, joked.

"Looks kinda lonely, isn't it?"

"Yeah, perhaps we should bring it in. Who knows, whatever creature is inside it may need our care."

But they didn't have to wonder for long.

***

Pelzer found his way to high ground after two hours. According to his watch, it should be noon back on Earth but it still felt like late dawn in this world. He stopped near a cliff to catch his breath and admired the scenery. Just when he was about to make a move, he saw something move in the forest of mushrooms.

"General Brooke…Dmitri…Juan…is that you?" he called out.

The silhouettes stopped and hid behind the mushroom stalks, as if trying to hide from him or ambush him. Pelzer wasn't taking any chances so he unslung his assault rifle and walked stealthily towards the mushroom forest. His heart raced and cold sweat broke from his forehead. Pelzer moved slowly while staying alert. Suddenly, he felt someone grab his neck but years of training kicked in and Pelzer responded by knifing his assailant. He heard a cry of pain and the hand that was grabbing his neck let go.

"Shit," he muttered.

He saw the dead body of an ape on the ground and blood flowed from where he stabbed it. While an ape wasn't unusual to him, what caught his attention was that this ape was almost his size and it wore clothes and carried weapons.

"Son of a gun," Pelzer said.

He heard excited sounds coming from the other apes as they ran away from him. Pelzer shook his head and retrieved his knife from the fallen body. He thought it was just one of the natives but his stab marked the beginning of human intervention in a war they should not fight in, especially a war they could not handle and could threaten the team's mission and ultimately their lives.

A/N: I plan to write three parts for this story and I also plan on covering moments where Spyro is away as to give a background story on what is happening during his absence.