Humanity's Finest

Chapter 2

It seemed ages ago when Dempsey allowed himself to be captured. And it seemed even longer when the guardians announced they were going to take him away. Claiming they "knew" him. They were telling the truth, they did know him, to some extent. But they were also wary of him; after his little stunt a while ago one of the guardians volunteered kept an eye on him. But to regain their trust he lost long ago, he refused to leave the cage and handed over his pistol to them. And this is where he now found himself, in the Warfang temple with Volteer watching over him.

There was one question that arose within his mind, where was Spyro and Cynder? And the annoying dragonfly that followed them around. Volteer seemed to have picked up on this, because he walked to the cage.

"The young ones are out on a mission of sorts." The yellow dragon hesitated, grunting as he sat down in front of the cage.

If Dempsey didn't hear himself better, he'd have thought something bad was going on. "What kind of mission?" He asked the electric guardian, suddenly full of interest.

Volteer once again hesitated and Dempsey easily picked up on that. Something bad was going on. "Volteer..." He started a little forcibly than he intended. "What. Kind. Of. Mission?"

Dempsey had never seen Volteer disturbed before in the short time he was here. But that look the dragon gave him, it was grave and full of worry. Something bad was happening to them when he was gone. He was certain of it.

"Volteer." Dempsey made his voice sound worried, so it could "help" make Volteer tell him what he wanted to know. "Did something bad happen after I vanished?"

Volteer bit his bottom lip as he looked towards the door, he seemed to think someone might overhear him. Dempsey could understand that, but he was getting nowhere' he needed information. And information was a playable power in this world.

"If you're worried about someone overhearing us. Or me telling anyone, don't worry about it." Volteer looked back, only to see Dempsey leaning on front of the cage with a worried look. "Something bad is going on out there. Isn't it?"

"Yes." Dempsey smirked when he finally received his first answer from the guardian. Volteer leant down so his head was leveled with Dempsey's. "Villages are going missing, scouts are vanishing without a trace." The guardian tensed as he spoke those words.

"And just recently, a village we traded closely with in Avalar; has been attacked. There were few to no survivors." He said all of these unnaturally slow; something Dempsey thought wasn't common for Volteer. Because he was trying his best to stop himself from speaking fast.

Dempsey then got straight to the point, "Do you know whose doing the attacks?"

"No." Volteer solemnly shook his head; his eyes full of regret. "Whomever is doing them, is skilled. They mainly attack at night' and use the cover to their advantage. Some large and medium sized villages are lucky enough to even repel their attacks..."

"And that brings us to Spyro and Cynder... you sent them to find out whose doing this." Dempsey guessed as he crossed his legs. He looked at the ground of his cage in thought and grimly guessed they've been missing for some time.

His guess was correct when Volteer confermed it himself, but there was something else. Something he wanted' once glance from the dragon and Dempsey easily got it. He maybe blunt and violent but he wasn't stupid.

"I'll do it." He answered Volteer's unasked question. Which earned a deal of surprise from the electric dragon. But that look of surprise quickly turned into a look of joy. As Volteer began to find a way to unlock the cage, Dempsey simply made his own exit: by kicking a couple of wooden bars in half.

Volteer took a few steps away in surprise. And watched at Dempsey took the first step out of his cage. "Been wanting to do that for a while now." Dempsey said as he rubbed his shoulder to get rid of the tension that was building there.

"How did you... That shouldn't be!"

Dempsey held up a hand to silence the dragon. "I wasn't spending an entire week in that cage doing nothing ya' know." He licked his teeth to reassure himself before gesturing at the cage. "Been tryin' to gnaw my way out of that thing before I got here. Most of my teeth hurt; and my gums were bleeding." Dempsey rubbed his jawline, wincing as he felt a sharp pain near the back of his teeth.

"Had to stop for a while. For my gums to heal. Then I, ended up here."

He smiled when he saw a familar chalk outline on a wall nearby. "Never thought these would be here..." Dempsey mused as he approched the wall. Volteer followed him when he's seen what was on the wall inside the temple.

"Fascinating! What would this interesting thing be?" Volteer asked running a claw over the chalk outline. "I have never seen anything like this before in my lifetime!" He exclaimed looking at the outline when nothing has changed.

"That would be a weapon I can 'buy' to use. Don't know how it works or how it came to be, it just...did!" The chalk outline looked like an M14 Rifle, a Semi-automatic weapon that has twenty round in it. Not to be confused with his pistol which is also Semi-automatic and fully-automatic. It can be used for many things; one of them being a sniper rifle. It just needed a scope for it to be one.

"Let's see..." Dempsey mumbled as he reached out to touch it. Volteer's eyes widened is surprise when he saw a weapon merge in the humans hands, and he was even more shocked when Dempsey leaned over before falling on one knee. He looked drained.

"Ahhhh. Dam, didn't think it would take that much out of me..."

Standing up seemingly full of energy he gave Volteer one look before motioning with his head. "Come on. Let's find the others."

ooOOoo

"Out you come you coward!" Nikolai growled at their stalker.

Nikolai scanned his surroundings with his AK47. The attacker was well hidden and no one could find him. And being smart Nikolai, Takeo and Richtofen decided to stay together. Knowing they would be picked off one by one if they split the three decided have their backs to each other.

"I don't rike dishonourabre peopre! Hiding within the shadows," Takeo muttered in a grave voice. "It is... Shamefull."

Richtofen scoffed at Takeo. "At least zis person has ze brains to use the shadows; but ze creature is vounded."

Nikolai grunted in pain as he shifted his position, and looked over his shoulder. "Perhap's we should try reasoning with this suka?"

Just as Richtofen was about to reply a new voice entered the fray. Interrupting the nazi from speaking. "I don't reason with those who work for the Dark Master!" The stranger growled, his voice full of hate and disgust.

Takeo put on a confused look and looked at Richtofen, who shrugged in responce. Even the infamous nazi himself was confused, which was rare, even for him. "What makes you think we work for this... 'Dark Master'?" Takeo asked, frowning at how this person immeditally concidered them to be an enemy.

"Because!" The voice started, "The surrounding villages are going missing at night! And the ones who are doing them have weapons very similar to yours!"

Everyone looked at their own weapons in surprise, someone was giving humans a bad name? Not wise. "Someone is frameing us!" Was the first thing Nikolai shouted out in anger.

"For once Russian, I agree. This cannot go any further!" Takeo agreed with raw determination.

Richtofen however was the only one who looked excited about the whole thing. And much to Takeo and Nikolai's dismay his unstablility was beginning to show.

"Something's been framing us? The schweinhund shall feel my blade, in his HEAD!" Richtofen shouted giggling like a child as his hands shook uncontrollably. "And I shall enjoy the pain the specimen will receive!"

Takeo and Richtofen a worried look' Nikolai was also giving Richtofen a worried look. Knowing the nazi, he would actually decapitate someone in order to "learn" from it. It's the way he is, and what he alway's will be. Their just thankful that Richtofen's an ally instead of an enemy.

"I make deal yea?" Nikolai offered the hidden person. "Would you like hearing it?" The soviet slurred, signifying that he was now drunk.

Takeo easily noticed this and was quick to try and stop the Soviet from doing something that might get them into futher trouble with this... hidden stalker of theirs. "Nikolai I don't think-" Takeo started, but Nikolai held up a hand signifying him to "shut you're mouth"

"Are you there?" Nikolai called out. A few minutes of awkward silence later and the voice came back, but a lot more calmer than he was.

"Yes. I'm here."

"Good, I'm going to set my weapon to the ground." Nikolai said as he slowly placed his weapon on the ground in front of him. "Takeo, Richtofen, do the same."

This had gotten a really bad reaction from them, and they began complaining about how bad this was. And how vulnerable they would be if they carelessly cast their weapons aside. However Nikolai felt they had to gain this person's (if he was a person) trust. So after twenty long minutes of trying to convince them that they needed to put their weapons aside, they agreed. Although they were reluctant to do so.

After all three of them were appearantly weaponless, they took a few steps away. So there was a respectable amount of distance between them and their weapons; Nikolai winced as he felt another stab of pain run through his injured leg, and could actually feel the blood running down to his foot. He'll have to get Richtofen to patch it up. The last thing he needs is an infection!

"Alright!" Nikolai began' his voice full of pain. "Now that we are respectfully away from weapons. Can you reveal yourself?"

There was another long awkward silence between the two groups. A full five minutes had past until the silence was broken when they stranger said "Ok" to the group. The next thing, the three were covering their eyes when a flash of blinding light suddenly appeared in front of them.

When Nikolai and the others uncovered their eyes when the light vanished, their jaws literally dropped when they saw a black dragon, with a deadly looking double tale blade for a tail. The dragon had three crystals hanging from his neck in the fashion of a necklace. The dragon also had a large scar on his face, which made him look frightening.

After the dragon had made his appearence, he spoke to them in four simple words. Which had the three humans shocked out of their minds.

"My name is Zoidius."