Humanity's Finest
Chapter 3
The stalls in the marketplace used to be filled with different piles of meat and fruit and full of activity. Now however Warfangs food supplies and water were running out, and with the way things were going on it was going to get worse. A lot worse. There was still some activity however, just a few merchants trying to sale their wares to those that were passing by.
"This is what those attacks have reduced us too, Dempsey." Volteer gravely said to the human beside him. He looked down at Dempsey, there was an expression on his face that he couldn't explain. Was it disgust? Possibly. Or was it pity? Or perhaps: both.
Without looking at the Dragon Guardian Dempsey said, "How long has it been like this?"
"A very long time." Dempsey and Volteer looked behind them when Terrador spoke in a grave tone. His eyes trained on Dempsey; he sighed when he saw a strange looking rifle slung oner his shoulder. "Maybe three to four weeks. You're presence here Dempsey has put their troubles aside for now."
Dempsey nodded and looked back at the marketplace before crossing his arms. "Where's Cyril? I thought he'd be here by now." He questioned as he looked at the earth dragon with suspicion in his eyes.
"He's preoccupied with a few of the younger dragons. You're presence within our Temple has caused a lot of questions." Volteer quickly answered, much to Terrador's relief. Sometimes, that fast mouth of Volteer's was a gift' and with his ever growing knowledge of the world, and the worlds forgotten 'past' that mouth will be an unbearable aid to their cause.
"Let me guess: their asking a bunch of questions that involves me, right?" Dempsey smartly asked with a smug grin.
"Indeed." Terrador answered lowly. Motioning the two to follow him the three walked towards the marketplace. But kept Dempsey in the middle of them, some cheetah's and moles were out for his blood after he injured the guards. And even if he was armed with a new looking weapon there were far too many of them for Dempsey to handle. He needed the protection' and the guardians who knew him were rather... Hesitant at first, to give the human the protection he needed from the angry crowd.
"Glorious..." Dempsey said sarcastically.
Entering the marketplace those who were there, stopped what they were doing almost immeditally. There were some respectful nods that Dempsey guessed were for the two guardians beside him. And then there were a few earth dragons who were giving him shocked expressions; he guessed those were the ones that made the building collaspe on top of him and his group before teleporting out of there. He heard a few cheetah's and... wolves? Growling at him in an aggressive manner. Dempsey smirked and give them the finger before jogging to keep himself inbetween the two guardians.
"Where we headin'?" Dempsey asked after minutes of silence.
"To Cyril; we need him with us as well." Terrador answered, Dempsey opened his mouth to ask where he was. But Terrador effectively beat the human to it. Stopping and putting himself in front of the human, he leaned down so his head was leveled with Dempseys.
Terrador then spoke in a very serious manner. "You are concidered an enemy to this city Dempsey. You are lucky to even be alive after what you did in front of all those people." He leaned in so his snout was nearly touching Dempsey's face. "No more questions out of you. Understand?" He snarled to make it effective.
Blinking twice Dempsey carelessly waved the dragon off. "You don't need to get in my face, just to say that - dude." He said bluntly, which made Terrador raise his head in surprise. "Second of all, I stared down death itself, so I don't give a fuck if an entire country full of dragons, moles and cheetah's was out there tryin' to kill me! I'd concider that a god-dammed break after all I'd been through."
Terrador merely snorted in annoyance before walking on. Volteer and Dempsey stared at each other for what seemed to be a long time, before the yellow dragon was on the ground laughing himself to death.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! Y-you just, oh by my ancestors, Terrador's face was PRICELESS!" Volteer laughed at the top of his voice which gained some people watching he guardian laughing his head off. Taking a deep breath Volteer laughed even harder than before; Dempsey smirked as he lot out a chuckle, and rubbing the bridge of his nose at the same time.
Getting himself together Dempsey pat Volteer on the snout; but kept the smirk turned smile on his face. "C'mon Volteer, before someone thinks I tickled you to the ground." He said jokingly.
Regaining himself Volteer cleared his throat and got himself on his paws. "Yes! Indeed! Wouldn't want someone to think that." The two chuckled as they ran to catch up with Terrador, who was already a distance away from them.
ooOOoo
Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen were staring at the black dragon who was currently staring back at them, although it was more of a "glare" than a "stare". The dragon who called himself Zoidius sat down with a yawn; and carefully studied the defenseless humans in front of him. They didn't seem like threats to him but he learnt from the past that looks can be deciving, and that everyone is a potencial enemy of his. Nikolai, who was the one he bit; limped towards a stump nearby, doing this had quickly gotten Zoidius back on his feet in a aggressive manner.
He watched as Nikolai gritted his teeth in pain as he lifted his trouser leg, to reveal deadly looking bite marks and scratches on his calf muscle that was completely drenched in blood that flowed down onto his boot. Richtofen who had easily smelt the blood looked in the Soviet direction, and cursed in German in alarm.
"Scheiße! Nikolai vhy didn't you tell me you vound vas like zis!" Richtofen scolded as he knelt beside the Russian examing the wound.
Nikolai brushed Richtofen's concern aside however, much to Zoidius's surprise. "Did not think it would matter, some Vodka would make pain go away though." Nikolai went through his sack and took out one of his many bottles, uncorked it and began to try drinking the pain away.
"Sometimes, I think I'm arway's with an idiot in this group." Takeo growled as he facepalmed himself. He looked at Nikolai mumbled to himself as the Soviet wiped his mouth. "It turns out I'm arway's right."
Zoidius tilted his head at Takeo. He expected whoever was attacking the outlaying villages was pure evil. Not this. He heard Nikolai spit out the liquid from his mouth before letting out a mighty yell; Richtofen merely scolded the Soviet as he wrapped a bandage around the wound.
"Vould you stay still Russian?" Richtofen impatently asked as he tried to hold Nikolai's leg in place.
"No! You're hurting me!" Nikolai complained as he struggled to get his wounded leg away from Richtofen.
"It vill hurt even more if you keep MOVING! Now stay still Dummkopf!" Richtofen snarled in responce. Giving up Nikolai gumbled to himself as he put on a grumpy expression, he whined when Richtofen made the bandage too tight on his leg, but the Doctor ignored him.
In an attempt to gather information Takeo began asking Zoidius questions about the attackers. "You say someone had been using weapons rike ours, correct?" He started, getting the black dragons attention.
Zoidius carefully looked at their weapons that were lying on the ground a fair distance away from them. "Similar, I said they were using very 'similar' weapons." The black dragon corrected him in a grim voice. Looking up at the Japanese soldier who was staring patently at him in return, he looked into his eyes. And saw both a wise man and someone who'd seen hell in them.
"Do you know whose being attacked?" Takeo asked bravely knelling in front of the dragon. When Zoidius didn't answer Takeo continued; "There is no honour in this, and who ever is attacking, will farr before our might." He then pointed to Nikolai and Richtofen. "We, sharr do whatever it takes to find these attackers. And eleminate them."
That! Had gotten a reaction out of the dragon.
"You're actually going to help me? After what I done to your...friend?"
Takeo slightly turned his head so the beak of his cap shadowed his eyes from the black dragon. "I never said I would herp you." Zoid growled in annoyance and before he could make a snappy remark, Takeo continued. "However. Someone out there is framing us' we sharr make them pay!"
"Da! I agree with the Japanese pig on this one! Those sukas are going to die." Nikolai shouted to them. "OW! Richtofen do that again and I will blow your fucking head off!"
Richtofen laughed like a little child getting his first bike at the responce, Zoidius looked at the two and noticed there was some tension in the group. Although it was very little, after a minute of watching the two men bickering and annoying each other Richtofen has finally finished wrapping the bandage around the Soviet's leg.
"Vell, zat's zat done." Richtofen announched victoriously. "Nikolai vill be fine, just some minor wounds."
"Easy for you too say!" Nikolai shouted limping towards the humans and dragon. "You were not one who had his leg chewed like a toy!"
"Again vith ze complaining. I don't get paid enough for zis. Of vait, I don't get paid!" Richtofen laughed loudly as he retreaved both his and the others weapons from the ground. "Ze death of my enemies is payment enough!"
"Is he alright in the head?" Zoidius awkwardly asked Takeo.
Takeo stared at Zoidius for a few seconds before saying "No." he then took his AK74u from the Nazi and put the safety on before slinging over his shoulder. Zoidius watched as Richtofen handed Nikolai his AK47; after watching the Soviet do something and hearing a few clicks coming from the weapon Nikolai slinged the weapon over his shoudler.
"Strange, you vere meant to be injured..." Richtofen said to Zoidius with surprise in his voice. "How could you have healed in such a short time?"
If Zoidius didn't know any better he'd think Richtofen was trying to find something, something that would tip the odds in their favour. Truthfully, Zoidius did have something, three things infact' and they were hanging from his neck. But the humans didn't have to know that; so he came up with a simple lie.
"We dragons heal faster than others." Zoidius proudly said to Richtofen and the others. "It's rare to know a dragon that can heal upon impact, but I'm one of those dragons." The dragon lied as he kept a straight face, shame the humans didn't know anything about dragons. "The other dragons and I; also use crystals to heal and make ourselves stronger."
This has almost caught Richtofen's interest, "Really? Zat could be useful..." Richtofen said with a sinister simile.
Zoidius couldn't help himself as he nervously swollowed the large build of saliva that was forming in his mouth. There was something about that man, something that told him to be wary of him in the future.
"Time to go hunt those, who are impersonating us." Nikolai slurred signifying that he was as drunk as a horse. He stumpled and staggered past the group and he barely made it two feet before he fell to the ground. Face first.
Takeo sighed in annoyance as he and Richtofen went to help the drunk up. "This is going to be a rong night..."
ooOOoo
When Spyro opened his eyes the first thing he noticed was the lack of space he found himself lying down in. Quickly pushing himself up on all fours he winced as he tried to move his head around' he needed to know, was Cynder and Sparx alright? And if they weren't where are they held? When he observed his surroundings the first thing he noticed was there was a lot of different species in one place.
Moles, Cheetah's, Dragons and even Wolves were here. The second thing he noticed everyone had a chain connected to their necks; they seemed to be enchanted to prevent them from either escaping, or from preventing the chains from breaking. The third and final thing he noticed; was he and everyone else was trapped in a medium sized cage with metal bars.
As he took in everything he saw, one thing came to mind: They were captured.
Spyro looked at the ground in disbelief, how were they captured? The last thing they remembered was heading to a village that was recently attacked and then...nothing. "This can't be good..." Spyro thought grimly.
He quickly turned his head when a door opened, the light from the outside shining into the room. It was here that he realised, things were worse than he thought. Fourteen cages of different sizes that contained a variety of creatures; even those he had never seen before filled the room.
It was then Spyro heard a new voice being aggressive and struggling against their captor's. "Get those fifthy hands off of me you dammed dirty apes!"
Three new captives came into the room and were currently struggling against their captors with all their might before they were chucked in a cage together. Spyro strained his eyes as he walked to the edge of his cage. One of them had furless skin, and strange green clothing that covered most of their body. Then Spyro's eyes widened in surprise. They were humans!
One of them had scars on his face, and the hair on his head was mostly shaven off. He had a sheath for some kind of weapon strapped across his back. His rolled up sleeved jacket had different textures on it, as if it was trying to camoflage him from his enemies' and there was a holster for a small hand held weapon around his chest. His trousers were green though, and he had muddy brown boots.
The second person looked younger than the first two he had seen. But he looked very familar to someone he knew a long time ago though. The human wore an open buttoned, rolled up sleeve jacket, a black t-shirt and a cartridge belt strapped along his chest with a single strap of suspenders holding it together along his back. There was a sheath that was meant to contain a combat knife under the cartridge belt. And two empty holsters for pistols was strapped across his back and against his leather leggings.
The last and third human, was a heavily bearded man; but he wore similar clothing to the second person. Only his jacket was buttoned up; and he also had leather leggings. His sleeves were also rolled up, and he looked like he'd been through hell and back.
It was here that Spyro heard the scarred man shout in disgust at their captors. "You worthless animals! You don't deserve to call yourselves 'soldiers'."
"Roebuck, calm down." Spyro heard the second human say.
"Polonsky those fucking animals nearly killed us! They deserve to die for what they did." Roebuck shouted back in anger.
Spyro saw Roebuck and Polonsky knell down beside their comrade. "Hang in there Miller, we'll get you out of here in no time."
"Yeah, sure, as soon as we get our weapons back." Spyro heard the third and final human chuckle in amusement. He guessed this one was 'Miller'.
"What do we do now Sarge?" Polonsky asked leaning against the bars of their cage.
"We wait for an opportunity to escape. Then we blow the bastards to hell."
Spyro watched as Polonsky punched his fist into the air with a determined look on his face.
"Hoorah!"