Humanity's Finest

Chapter 5

The gunshots from the .Colt's echoed throughout the room as Miller and company fired a single bullet at the locks that kept the cages shut. And they weren't well made either; the locks themselves were extremely rusty. So all it took was one well-aimed shot, and the locks would break. But even if the locks were broken, the prisoners within still had their chains to be removed. The three humans had guessed their pistols wouldn't be strong enough to break the chains. And they were right, being enchanted, the only way to remove them was by special keys. By the time the humans were finished breaking the locks, Miller was gathering information from one of the prisoners, a white scaled dragoness. The leader of this whole thing would have the keys to their chains and he would even come here sometimes to mock them.

"Ok, that's bad. If the three of us head out there, we'll be fighting against superior numbers."

The dragoness nodded as Miller looked at the ground, and tried to think of a plan that could get them out of this mess.

"Don't you have other people out there looking for you?" The dragoness asked hopefully. "Surely they wouldn't abandon you!"

Miller frowned. That frown had told her help wasn't coming for them. Miller confirmed it which caused the dragoness to look away, saddened by the fact that no one was going to help them.

"That's the thing, no one knows we three are here." The human said in a grim voice. But a smile formed on his lips when he said the next sentance. "But that doesn't mean we can't break out.

Looking at Miller with hopeful eyes she asked Miller what the plan of action would be. His response to that, was a smile, a smile that said "you'll see." She shook her head allowing a smile of her own appear on her lips.

"My name is Nia, by the way." The dragoness introducted herself bowing in respect with a sincere smile.

Miller returned the jesture. "Private. Miller, at your service."

Nia curiously raise a brow at him,

"'Private.'? That's an odd name." She was surprised when Miller laughed in what she guessed was humour, but what did he find funny?

"Private. is not a name. It's a Rank, my Rank." He pointed at Polonsky and Roebuck who were talking to different coloured dragons, moles, cheetah's and wolves. "Polonsky, has the same Rank as me. And Roebuck over there is our superior, so his Rank is 'Sergeant'" Miller explained to the best of his abilities, so far Nia seemed to understand.

"Polonsky and myself are under his command, so you could say whatever he says, goes." He smile grinned even more when he turned to look at the dragoness. "Plus, the three of us are friends. We look out for each other; and we follow two simple rules that Roebuck made."

This had gotten Nia's attention. These humans had rules? What were they? What do they mean?

"What are the rules?" Nia asked sitting down quickly as if she was a child listening to a favorate story.

"There are two very simple rules," Miller began to recite what he remembered of the two rules Roebuck told his squad when he took over. "Rule one: No one fights alone." He already had his forefinger up, and then he stuck up his second finger, "Rule two: Stay together, we'll come out on top."

"Excuse me?" Miller looked down to his right when an unknown person spoke to him. To his and Nia's surprise, it was Spyro, the might purple dragon of Legend.

Much to Spyro's embrassment and Miller's confusion, Nia' began bowing before Spyro as if he was a god repeatedly saying "I am not worthy." to herself acting like Spyro was a god before her presence.

Miller pointing a thumb at a bowing Nia said; "This happen a lot to ya'?"

Spyro sighed in frustration more to himself than Nia. "Unfortunately, yes, and it get's annoying after a while." Spyro admitted as he glared at the ground. "Sometimes, I just don't want to be THE purple dragon." He muttered under his breath.

Spyro stared up at Miller when the human chuckled, appearently finding something to be funny.

"What's so funny?" Spyro asked tilting his head in confusion.

"You are the exact opposite of someone I know." Miller said with a smile. "A man, who's so famous that he became a Legend among the marines in the U.S.M.C a few years after he joined. He rather liked the attention he received from us, and wouldn't hesitate to put us in our place when we stepped out of line."

"I know him." Roebuck joined the conversation' which caused the two marines and friends to stare at each other with huge smiles on their faces. "One of the finest men the two of us ever knew." Roebuck and Miller turned to face Spyro and Nia who were staring up at the humans with wide eyes.

"He is quite the marine, saved our asses on several occasions." Miller's smile then faded into a frown, remembering the soldier that he had never seen for a long time. For all he knew, he could be dead right now.

"It was rather strange really, the guy looked exactily like Polonsky, the only difference between the two was both their voice and personality. Plus he had more muscles than our friend' and no one messed with him, no one messed with 'The Tank'." Miller mused; looking upwards as he tried to remember the said person.

When Miller said "The Tank" that had gotten a reaction out of the purple dragon, but instead of saying anything he kept quiet, he needed to know if the one he knew and the one they were talking about were one and the same. Just in case.

"Who exactily was 'The Tank'? What sort of person was he? Was he kind?" The amount of questions Nia asked made both Roebuck and Miller raise their brows in surprise, she showed a high level of curiousity towards the humans, which was something the two marines weren't expecting.

"The Tank, is a human like us." Miller said as he pointed at himself and his superior. "A soldier, mess with him and you'll have you're guts missing." Miller joked, Spyro and Nia looked disgusted at the last words.

"What Miller means: If you mess with The Tank, you won't have the guts to stand up to him." Roebuck corrected his friend; he saw the look of relief Spyro and Nia gave and took that as a sign they dodged a bullet. "He can be a good fellow, it's just when he's pissed off you want to stay out of his way."

"But there has to be a way out of here!" Polonsky shouted in dismay.

Spyro, Nia, Roebuck and Miller turned their heads and saw Polonsky talking to a few cheetahs, moles and wolves. The dragons were staying clear from him maybe because he looked very similar to a human they thought was dead.

"I'm sorry human, but with those acursed apes and ancestors-knows what lying in wait outside' none of us will would stand much of a chance against them. Becides, we're stuck in here until we get the keys that will unlock these chains. With them on, we're nearly useless to you, unless you prefer for us to fight up close and personal."

"Actually that's not true." Roebuck and Miller interrputed the chat between the group. Polonsky gave Roebuck a respectful salute as he approched, and the Sergent gladly returned it. When the two humans were gathered in front of the group on animals; Roebuck continued.,

"One of us can go out there recover our weapons and get back here without alerting the guards. The remaining two can hold the fort here, just to make sure those furry bastards-"

"Hey!" Cried out a orange furred cheetah, clearly insulted from Roebuck's speech.

"Sorry!" He appologed. "But still, two of us need to remain here to make sure those shit-for-brains don't try to rush the building. We got about two magazines between the three of us; so if you fire, make every shot count."

"Man, I just wish help was nearby." Polonsky complained distraught by their new situation.

Fortunately for them help was closer than they thought, using the invisibility crystal that hung from his neck' Zoidius was able to sneak into the enemy controlled village without being seen. Crutching down and keeping his wings tucked and tail close, Zoidius watched as three large apes covered entirely in black and red armour walked passed the startled black dragon. The first one carried a sword that had a red aura surrounding the blade, the second carried a massive staff that had a multiple coloured orb entwined with wood that bloomed with magic. And the third carried a deadly looking advanced weapon that he had never seen before on it's shoulder, it looked alien to the dragon.

There was four holes at the front of the weapon, four long tubes were at the rear of the weapon. Just one look of that thing and Zoidius knew immeditally that thing was a weapon of destruction. The humans needed to know about this! And fast! Just as he was about to get out of there and tell his current human allies, he stopped when one of the large apes began asking questions about the recent events.

"What in Malefor's name happened here? Did the prisoner's riot?" The ape with the sword snarled menicingly at the assembled group.

No one was brave enough to reply, five minutes later the ape that had managed to escape the small firefight inside slave building bravely stepped forward. The ape leader grunted, allowing the ape to speak.

"No sir!" The shaken ape replied as he tried look in the eyes of the larger ape in front of him. "The hairless creatures we captured not long ago had caught my group off guard. Their now armed with the strange looking weapons we've found on their possession, and they seem to know how to use them better than we do."

The large ape growled in disappointment' and in one swift move, he decapitated his subordinate. Zoidius nearly screamed when the head rolled in front of his face. The body fell to the ground moments later, the blood seeping out of the decapitated neck, Zoidius who muzzle was inches from the head of the dead ape in front of him slowly took a few steps back.

"No one had better disappoint me again. Or you'll end up like him!" The ape walked to the severed head, picked it up and stuck it on the tip of his sword, the blood running down the blade.

The apes quickly nodded as they looked away, none dared to stare up at him. Zoidius however was staring at the sword with great interest. The red aura around the blade seemed to glow brighter when the placed placed the severed head on top of the blade.

It took a few moments for Zoidius to discover what that blade does.

"Oh no." He whispered his eyes wide. "It's blood-thirst!" Zoidius said fearfully.

Reading long abadoned scrolls and books on magical artifacts from abadoned libraries gave Zoidius a lot of knowledge of magical weapons that were forgotten long ago. Blood-thirst was one such weapon that has been lost, or was. This sword makes the user stronger everytime the blade is touched by blood, or slays a foe, the last wielder who was said to be an unknown creature (Zoidius figured it was a human) was in a final battle between his kind and the undead. Although he slew thousands upon thousands of undead, he eventually fell to their overwelming numbers and the sword was lost.

Until now that is.

Zoidius then took a glance at the staff. While the staffs orb had multiple colours within it, he was sure it was powerful; it didn't have the aura similar to Blood-thirst's but looks can be deciving. For all he knew it could control the elements the staff comes in contact with; or it could make the breaths the dragons use useless, forcing them to attack close and personal.

The weapon that the third ape had, was something he had never seen before, it wasn't in the scrolls or books he discovered on his travels. And a weapon that was unknown to him was worrying. Hopefully the humans that are waiting for him would know about that particular weapon.

"Kong!" The ape with the sword shouted. "You are going to stay here and over-see the troops here, make sure this riot doesn't turn into a rebellion! Kill them if you have too!"

The third ape nodded and began to direct the ape forces into positions. Zoidius knowing what was going to happen decided it was time to regroup with the humans. Spreading out his wings, Zoidius flapped them and took to the sky immeditally after, the apes that were nearby felt the strong breeze Zoidius made push against their fur.

"Did you feel that?" A weaponless ape asked looking around.

"Bah! It's just a breeze, nothing more, nothing less!" Another grunted, snorting before running his fingers through the hair on his arms.

ooOOoo

Takeo scanned the area down below for Zoidius through his binoculars. While he has been away for a short time, he wanted to make sure that the dragon wasn't in trouble. Richtofen lay against the rock they were hiding behind, the viser of his cap completely covering his eyes as he rested. Nikolai being bored of doing nothing was taking small sips of Vodka from his bottle he took out from his sack. But all that changed when they heard a soft 'Thud' nearby.

Richtofen quickly unslinged his MP40, while Takeo unslung his AK74u. Nikolai however was too drunk to notice, until Takeo smacked him on the back of his head, causing the Soviet to spit out the remaining Vodka he was drinking from his mouth, before coughing profoundedly.

"What was that for!" Nikolai demanded.

Richtofen shushed the Soviet by glaring menicingly at him. Gulping Nikolai quickly placed the cap on his Vodka and put the bottle in his sack. He then made a grab for his AK47 when a black paw stepped on it. Pushing himself back in surprise Nikolai was about to yell out when Takeo covered his mouth with his hand.

"Ah! You've returned to us Herr Zoidius!" Richtofen said with a happy smile. Sense when did Richtofen let out a happy smile?

"Yeah." Zoidius replied in a grim voice. "I've scouted the area, and I've got bad news."

The humans listened carefully as Zoidius told them what he saw, from the army of apes; to the weapons they had and even their leaders. He even told them that one of them had an advanced monstrosity of a weapon, similar to theirs but wider, and thicker. Richtofen, Takeo and Nikolai looked at each other and nodded.

"Seems to me, zhey may have a Panzershrek, or a veapon similar to zat." Richtofen said slowly rubbing the barrel of his MP40.

"What's a 'Panzershrek'?" Zoidius asked confused about the weapon they spoke of.

"A weapon that fires large explosive like projectiles." Nikolai answered; showing the knowledge he had contained within his messed up brain. "It is capable of destroying buildings, armoured vehicles and lastly. Large amount of soldiers within seconds."

"But this weapon you spoke of is very different in design, it may fire exprosives' but none of us know how deadry it is in battre." Takeo countered, his accent mispronucing the L's in his words.

"Ze only vay for us to know vhat it is like, is for us to see it in battle." Richtofen added. Takeo and Nikolai nodded in agreement.

Zoidius didn't have time to speak. Before he could open his mouth the three humans quickly yet steathfully made their way down the hill as they brefly scanned their surroundings. Takeo was on point, being the one to lead them he was give them orders through sign languige' it was very useful when you didn't want to whisper, or give away your position to the enemy.

Zoidius switched his gaze from Takeo, to Richtofen and lastly to Nikolai and saw they were trained for this sort of thing. He would see Takeo make jestures with his hand, which confused him but Nikolai and Richtofen seemed to understand. A possible way of communicating perhaps? Maybe he'll find out more about them when this is all over, when they'll settle down and actually talk somewhere safe.

When the human in front held up his right hand, the two behind him quickly stopped. Zoidius followed their example, then they got on their bellies and began to crawl the rest of the way. At first Zoidius curiously tilted his head; wondering why they were doing something this ridiculous. Then it hit him. They were using the grass as cover. They were much larger than him and they looked the same size of some of the apes. They were going to use the element of surprise. Zoidius cracked a smile at this, these humans were resourceful; and that could be useful in the future.

The Imperial Army Of Japan had mostly fought in jungles against the marines of the United States. And they used the environment around them to their advantage; luring the unknowing marines into an ambush until it's too late for them to turn back. Takeo had taken part in most of these battles and his leadership had led his men to victory after victory. But slowly the Americans gained ground, inch by inch, but the imfamous ambushes of the Japanese had broken their will to fight on. At least for a while.

This was why the Imperials were feared, they never surrendered, they never gave up even in the face of defeat. And they would often do honourable sucidal charges shouting "BANZAI!" as they ran to their eventual deaths. Those who were lucky were able to crash into the American lines and slaughtered a lot of them; but their combined fire-power was enough to keep the Japanese at bay.

For particular battle Takeo was going to use the environment, and use the darkness that loomed over them to take the apes out one by one. Takeo looked over his shoulder in an attempt to see if Nikolai and Richtofen were behind him, of course with the grass and the night surrounding him it was difficult to see. He quickly turned his head to his left and saw Richtofen lying there, using the restraint he had to stop himself from pulling the trigger. Looking to his right he saw Nikolai in the same position as Richtofen and himself. He stared critically at the Soviet he was still pissed' from the Vodka he had but he looked sober enough to actually fire straight. He hoped.

"Zoidius!" Takeo whispered through gritted teeth. "Where are you?"

"I'm behind you; don't worry." Zoidius whispered in responce. Takeo didn't reply.

Takeo slowly observed the area; there was a few small rocks, logs, stumps and buildings to take cover behind' but their too far away. If they give away their position then they'll have their way to the prisoners. They couldn't risk it, there was too much at stake here' but when Takeo said he was going to make someone pay. He meant it.

Takeo got onto his knees to get a better look at his surroundings; there was a medium sized ape just a few meters in front of him. If they kept moving they wouldn't have crawled right into it, Takeo inhaled a deep breath and slung his AK74u over his shoudler before unsheathing his combat knife that was strapped just over his right boot. With the knife in hand, Takeo twirled the knife before gripping the tilt' making the blade face left. He moved steathfully through the grass as the distance between him and the ape shortened' his knife cutting through the air as he raised it slightly.

Reaching out, Takeo quickly covered the apes mouth, stopping the animal from shouting out in alarm' wrapping his other arm around the animal's chest, Takeo used all the strength he possessed and dragged the ape to the ground. Without hesitation Takeo raised his knife and stabbed the ape in the heart. Takeo saw the fear in its eyes, and he smirked in satisfaction as he felt the animal's body go stiff. When he was sure the ape was dead he pulled his knife out of the corpse and rubbed the blade on the apes fur, removing the blood that covered it.

Without another word Takeo gave the four behind him a thumbs up. Looking over his shoulder Richtofen motioned Nikolai to follow him; and without question Nikolai followed. Both Soviet and Nazi had separated from the group' as they went in the opposite direction, Zoidius noticed them and was about to tell Takeo, until he saw that the Jap was also looking in the direction Richtofen and Nikolai vanished. He didn't seem to be bothered by their separation, now that Zoidius thought of it, he didn't show any worry or distress of anykind. It was as if they did this sort of thing a lot.

"Zoidius." Takeo said in a whisper. The black dragon looked at the Imperial who had his Assault Rifle resting on his legs. "We wirr be arong for now. We must do this quietry."

The dragon made a silent growl; he didn't like being ordered around. In fact, he hated it! But he knew there were innocent people at stake, so he would have to let this one slide; for now. Takeo motioned Zoidius to follow as he quietly moved through the grass, without asking questions Zoidius followed.

Meanwhile as Richtofen and Nikolai took a different direction they found an ape and two baboons in front of a building. They carried swords and shields, and they had very little to no protection on their body. The very sight and the smell of them together was enough to make Richtofen gag in disgust. The two silently walked towards the side of the building the apes were at, and pressed their backs onto the wall. From the cover they were at, they could easily see them talking to each other. Although with the grunts and monkey noises they were making, it was very hard to make out what they were saying. Suddenly Richtofen patted Nikolai on the arm making the Soviet look at Richtofen with a curious stare.

Richtofen used his sign languige."We need to bring them to us!"

The Russian seemed to understand because he was looking around on the floor for something. Richtofen stared with a smile when Nikolai found a small but sharp looking rock; they'll catch their attention with this! Looking at the Nazi who nodded, Nikolai peeked from his cover and tossed the rock at the apes; managing to hit one on the back of the animals head.

"Ow!" An ape shouted out in surprise.

Richtofen covered his mouth as he laughed and, stopped immeditally as they apes approched. Slinging his SMG over his shoulder Richtofen drew his combat knife' and held it closely to his chest. Nikolai had the same thought in mind as he quickly drew a combat knife of his own.

"Remember," Richtofen said in a whisper. "Ve must capture one alive to know vhat ve are dealing vith."

"Da, I agree." Nikolai replied. Richtofen nodded, even is Nikolai had his back turned to him.

When the apes walked past them Nikolai immeditally pounced on them. Managing to knock one of them to the ground, before the ape could defend himself Nikolai plunged his knife into the apes neck, making the ape gurgle on it's own blood. And at the same time Richtofen leapt over Nikolai and slashed an ape on the throat, making it drop its weapons and grab its neck in it's vain attempt to make the blood stop pouring out.

It fell to the ground moments later, dead. The last ape who had the attention of the humans attempted to flee. That was until Richtofen picked up a medium sized rock and threw it at the ape. Richtofen quietly laughed in victory when the rock collied with it's head, causing the ape to fall to the ground face first.

"Step one: over and done vith." Richtofen announced in relief. Nikolai mumbled in agreement before rolling the ape on it's back.

The two then cracked their knuckles, time for them to gather some information from this animal.