Humanity's Finest
Part 2: Chapter 6
There weren't many things that surprised Hudson. Few of those surprises ever shocked him. His close encounter with the apes had both surprised and shocked him. Having never seen anything like them before.
When Woods and Mason came back and told them they encountered humans inside the village he was both relived and surprised. That relief was short lived however when one of the humans turned out to be a Nazi. The uniform the German wore was a pretty big give away.
It was of no surprise when Weaver and Hudson turned their weapons on the Nazi when they saw him. Richtofen was amused at the angered looks they were giving him and had to stop himself from laughing mockingly when Weaver had to be restrained.
Eventually Weaver was able to control himself and once his personal problems were out of the way Hudson began asking questions. Neither of them had noticed the cheetah's approaching the village streets as stealthy as possible.
"What happened here?"
"Apes attacked this place believe it or not. And seeing how unsurprised you four look I'm guessing you saw them before?" Roebuck asked upon seeing the mildly unsurprised looks on their faces.
Hudson nodded and sighed. "Yeah. We ran into a group of them a while back but we managed to hide from them." He explained. "What else is there about this place we should know about?"
Dempsey scratched his chin. "Well, apart from living real life dragons, midget sized moles and adult human sized cheetah's who can walk on their own two feet and all of whom can speak perfect English? Not so much."
Everyone gave the former Marine Raider deadpanned looks for his sarcasm.
"What?"
Richtofen shook his head, glaring at Dempsey with disgust. "Vill you ever take zhis seriously American?"
"What and be a miserable bastard like yourself?" Dempsey looked as if he were insulted by the very idea. "Not a chance you insane psychopath!"
Richtofen sneered at the man. "At least I am not stupid. Just. Like. You." He said, goading him in attacking him before shoving Dempsey back. It was Dempsey's turn to sneer at the man who glared back in a challenging manner. But instead of lashing out, like Takeo and Nikolai were expecting, Dempsey took a calming breath and backed down.
Weaver staring at the German and American with his one good eye, looked at Takeo and Nikolai and asked,"Does this happen all the time with you four?"
Nikolai and Takeo nodded but with Nikolai actually providing the reply. "Da. It is always like this comrade. We all hate each other, but we put aside our differences in order to work together to survive."
Frank shook his head at that as he scratched the back of his neck. "I'm surprised you four had lasted this long if that's the case."
"We have our moments." Nikolai stated with an uncaring shrug before he gazed between Dempsey and Richtofen, who were now staring each other down. "Dempsey and Richtofen hate one another. But against common foe, they set aside their hatred and fight together."
"So what were you seven planning to do with this village?" Woods asked as he and the other members of his group stared at Dempsey and Richtofen with caution who were glaring at one another.
"We're planning to turn this place in our outpost." Roebuck answered with a shrug. "Seeing as we have nowhere to go and this place is now abandoned, everyone thought it was best to have some place to hole up."
"Plus the area is pretty defensible." Dempsey piped up. He gestured to the buildings. "The rooftops give us a pretty good overview of the entire village; the streets are open and the village itself isn't that big."
The cheetah's led by Hunter of Avalar by this time were well hidden, and were overlooking the group of humans from the roofs. Lying flat on their stomachs' the cheetah's as they peered over the edge, mentally counted how many humans there are.
They were able to recognise Dempsey, Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen from the description they received of them. Though the four were a lot older than they were told. The other three Polonsky, Miller and Roebuck were ones they didn't recognise. Seeing this amount of humans – even if they aren't many – greatly concerned them.
And hearing the village being attacked by apes? That was, in their eyes, impossible as the apes have been cursed by the Dark Master after he was freed and they fled underground to hide.
Unfortunately as mentioned before the cheetah's have been out of the loop for quite a while and don't know of the current events. That included the attack on Warfang that happened several hours ago. Though to be fair neither do the humans know of the undead attack on Warfang.
"Hunter, what are your orders?" A male cheetah lying down next to him whispered. When he didn't get a reply he looked at the leader, only to see he wasn't there. Eyes widening the cheetah looked around wildly before spotting Hunter slowly making his way to the group of humans, his arms raised above his head to show he was no threat to them.
The humans' noticing there was someone approaching quickly turned and aimed their weapons at the person making his way to them. Those who never encountered them before were surprised to see a anthropomorphic cheetah slowly walking to them with his arms raised above his head. Showing he was not threat to them.
Narrowing his eyes a little Dempsey lowered his pistol and met the cheetah halfway. The two stopped in the middle. Dempsey standing tall with narrowed eyes and crossed arms and Hunter slowly lowering his arms to his side.
"So you are the human Spyro found those months ago. Surprising. You were thought to have been killed when the dragons forcibly collapsed that building on your head." Hunter looked over Dempsey's shoulder and easily recognised Takeo, Nikolai and Richtofen from the description he had learnt from the Dragon Guardians. "And the other three who somehow infiltrated the dragon city without being caught are here too." He looked back at Tank with a look that was akin to suspicion. "What brings you here? Why have you shown yourself at this time?"
"We were brought here for reasons unknown to us." Dempsey replied after a minute of tense silence. "As for why we're here, well, it's because we are investigating the disappearances that has been happening lately on the behalf of the dragons." It was a partial lie. He was the only only one meant to investigate. Him reuniting with his fellow zombie slayers, and meeting up with some fellow Marine Raiders was just a bonus.
Hunter looked sceptical and crossed his arms. "And what have you found so far pertaining the disappearances?" He asked.
Dempsey wasn't stupid. He knew what Hunter was trying to do: fish for information. But seeing as he had nothing to lie or hide he told the cheetah the truth.
Suffice to say the cheetah, if Hunter wasn't sceptical then he was now. From what he got from the scarred human, this abandoned village was invaded by apes who took the occupants prisoner. That he could believe. The humans he and his group were following had hidden themselves from a group of giant apes as they made their way to this village.
What he didn't believe was the undead dragon they managed to re-kill by blowing it up. And whose body parts are conveniently missing with the charred landscape a well ways away out of the village being the only evidence they had and the flaming dogs of mass destruction.
There was a part of the road that was torn to pieces from the bullets used to make Fluffy back up in the line of fire. And the torn chunks of rotten flesh. Those were the only things they had as proof for the hellhound being there.
With the excellent poker face Dempsey and the others were giving him it made it difficult for Hunter to know if the blonde haired human was lying about the hellhound.
As Dempsey and Hunter stared each other down Polonsky leaned towards Miller. "This is kinda weird isn't it?" The teenager whispered.
"What do you mean?" Asked Miller glancing at his friend curiously.
"That there's a cheetah who can walk and talk like us. And no one is freaking out about it."
Miller scratched his cheek before crossing his arms. "Well we did just see a flaming dog that could shake off bullets. Even dragons and apes. So it's obvious we can keep our cool after all that." He then gestured to the S.O.G. "They saw apes as well when they were on their way here. Afterwards they must have suspected there are other animals who evolved too."
Polonsky nodded, seeing the truth in his words. "I can see the truth in that. I wonder what else we might see in the future though. A llama? An eagle?"
"Not bloody likely." Miller replied. "They could have evolved into something else entirely for all we know." In Miller's mind the likelihood of them seeing an anthropomorphic eagle or llama is very unlikely. Despite they saw four different animals in this village already. The moles and wolves, cheetah's and dragons.
Never-the-less there was a chance, a small chance, but a chance nonetheless, that they can run into a anthropomorphic llama. It would prove to be an interesting experience.
Oh what was he thinking. This whole entire thing is an extraordinary experience.
X.X.X.X
"This whole thing is tedious." Cynder whined inwardly, in spite of the fact she was practically doing nothing to help in the search. "But I can't really complain about it..." She breathed out under her breath in sheer boredom.
She had spent all day in Dante's Freezer watching her minions digging up the ice and snow, while uncovering a structure that bared some resemblance to the Skavengers flying pirate ships. Though this ship was made entirely out of metal while the Skavengers ships were made mostly out of wood. She couldn't leave the dam place either. At most the furthest she can go before 'The Holy One' enforces her will through the key she ate and making her go back is up to two metres.
Now she was conflicted. There was something here that the girl wants. It was a weapon. Ignitus had warned her about it; it was created by human hands long ago and was and still is capable of wiping out all life on the planet. It sounded eerily similar to the titan that threatened to destroy the planet after Malefor awoke it from its slumber.
It was worse than that. The weapon can kill everything. Turning them into an undead parody of their former selves. Much like the undead dragons that were scouting the area tirelessly. As much as she hated to admit it, humans were geniuses when it came to inventing.
If Malefor had known about the weapon's existence then he would have put all his resources into its retrieval long ago. No one would have stood a chance against him.
But back to the point: so far there has been little progress in the search. The area was just covered in too much ice and snow that it made the excavation progress slow. There was also a lot of land to cover too and she had limited resources. The resources being the apes and undead dragons.
She was glad for that. Having less people in the search crew means the longer it will take to retrieve the weapon. But the place creeped her the hell out. The reason being she could hear music in the wind. But it was faint. She could even hear someone sing to the music but again it was faint. Faint enough that she couldn't hear most of what was being said.
"Gone! Cast away in time. Evil yours, now evil mine..." Cynder closed her eyes as the song started up again. And like last time there were missing lyrics in it. "...You can't break me! Crushed the fears of yesterday! You can't change me! Barriers – our trust will fade..."
As far as she knew no one apart from her could hear the song. While it creeped her out the song gave her something to listen too. It sounded appropriate to their surroundings oddly enough. By the third repeat she began to hum along with the song. By the tenth she knew most of the song by heart, apart from the ones that were muted.
"Thank god there's not a snowstorm about to roll in." Cynder muttered to herself as she laid her head down. Silently thankful the apes had constructed their camp fairly quickly so the coldness of the ice didn't get through the floor covers in the tents. "This would take longer than it normally should if one did." She sighed out before closing her eyes. She quickly fell asleep minutes later.
Above the camp in the night sky the ghostly transparent body of Samantha floated. Staring down at the camp with a calculating gaze. She scratched the back of her head in confusion. There was something wrong but she couldn't think of what it was. The black scaled dragon had just gone to sleep; the progress of the search for the V-R11 is well under way; their camp was made and her prototype undead were standing guard.
Everything was going according to plan so far.
So why the hell did she feel uneasy?
Sighing Samantha ran her hand through her hair and began to wonder what her father would have done. She wanted to fulfil her father's last wish: kill everyone in Group 935. She almost succeeded too, then Richtofen took his test subjects with him and began to use them to fight her hordes of undead.
Frustratingly everywhere they went they manage to narrowly escape her clutches. It severally pissed her off. She thought she finally won in Der Riese when Richtofen, Takeo and Nikolai were at last killed. But to her mistake she had overlooked Dempsey' and his survival revived them. After finding out they were still alive, she snapped, but she reigned in her temper and sent her horde on them. After a lengthy battle on both sides' with neither gaining the upper hand, Richtofen had done the impossible. He. Threw. Them. Across time.
And then after an undetermined amount of time they found Dempsey and brought him back. She didn't even know where they went. They just upped and vanished into thin air and then magically came back inside an old theatre almost ten years later. She wasn't surprised to see them all with a more older and ragged looking appearance given they were gone for several years.
What she found suspicious was how relieved the four looked when they discovered where they were. She was surprised when Dempsey actually laughed in relief when he saw the decaying Nazi corpses limping inside the theatre before heading off to kill them. Heck the last time they fought her undead army they were getting fed up and pissed at their appearance.
For the longest time she wondered what brought this change. And now 1 million years later, where humanity is extinct, she finally found out why. Dempsey was here before. He had even met some of the creatures that made earth their home.
Too bad she was going to destroy them. Even after the world was saved from destruction several months before.
She had several plans up her sleeve. One of them was to test out Warfang's defences. Another was to find the V-R11 and that was under way. Another one was to spread her forces out under everyone's noses. She did it before when she sent her minions against humanity and they were able to quickly spread. She could do the same here.
The civilizations of this time period are primitive. Some resistance will be expected but they would not hold out for long against her undead armies. They don't have the effectiveness of weapons humans had all those years ago. The humans who are here now would pose a problem however. Out of the eleven, four of them are ones who were a constant nuisance in her side. The other seven would have to be watched now they are teaming up with her antagonists.
Along with that cheetah who calls himself 'Hunter of Avalar'.
That's right. She was there when Hunter revealed himself. She is on a higher plane where she can see everything after all. Being able to see and keep track of Dempsey and the other's at the same time isn't that hard of a task. Trying to keep track of everyone's movements, at the same time, while ordering her undead minions around. That is a hard task. Any time she lost concentration the zombies would suddenly stop perusing and stand in place, screaming up toward the skies as they held their head.
Drumming her digits against her bare arm Samantha sat down cross-legged on an invisible floor. Moving her gaze away from Cynder she brought her focus back to the humans. While she was still pissed at them hurting her ever faithful dog Fluffy she couldn't help but applaud on their plan on getting rid of her.
Such plans deserve a reward and they were several hours over due of it. Smirking Samantha got up and flexed her fingers. She had the perfect reward in mind for them.
X.X.X.X
"That is quite the story you have told me, human." Hunter said after Dempsey had finished explaining to the cheetah of the events that led them to making the village an outpost of theirs. "While some parts of your tale is... unbelievable, I can tell what is a lie and what is truth." He shook his head and looked at the blonde haired man with reluctance. "And you claim there is an enemy capable of reanimating the dead?" When Dempsey nodded Hunter seemed to slump his shoulders in disbelief. "I don't know if I should believe you or not."
"You can try heading back to Warfang for confirmation. The remaining Dragon Guardians are the ones who took one of them on with a bit of help from yours truly."
Hunter squinted his eyes in suspicion. "Why would they be there and not here?"
"I was with them. Then I suddenly found myself with the other humans, while the dragons engaged with the undead. Then everyone here vanished. They're likely back at Warfang right now." Dempsey replied with a shrug of his shoulders. "My guess is some higher being took them away."
Hunter felt his eye twitch in annoyance. Did the human think he was stupid or something? "Do you expect me to believe that something had brought everyone, apart from the humans that were already here, away to some place else?" He asked rhetorically. He crossed his arms and looked sceptically at Tank as he added, "I'm not going to believe your words until I get some proof of this 'higher being'."
Tank frowned at that and opened his mouth to reply. He and everyone else was taken by surprise when a giant orb of sparking electricity manifested out of nowhere several metres away from the group.
Suddenly the orb expanded. Everyone quickly backed away from the rapidly expanding orb of electricity with their weapons aimed at it. They all yelled out in surprise when they were suddenly blinded by a flash of light, making them cover their eyes instinctively. The blinding flash of light had managed to illuminated the entire of the village.
Blinking repeatedly until his eyesight came back Tank slowly lowered his arm before lowering it completely, shocked at what he saw.
"Holy shit." He quietly muttered. His eyes slowly grew wide as he slowly looked at the others and found they too were surprised at what appeared before them.
It was a Mark IV tank. An armoured vehicle that was first introduced in the First World War. Unlike the other Mark IV tanks, this one had two mounted machine guns one on each side of the tank, a platform with banisters and railings on top to keep people from falling off. A skull with two crossed bones behind it painted on the guard of the tank. And three exhausts on the front of both sides of the tank and two large ones near the back.
Dempsey looked at Hunter who was staring at the Mark IV with his mouth all agape as he stared at the tank with an expression of disbelief. "You wanted proof of a higher being?" He said, gesturing to the tank with a 'I told you so' expression. "There's your proof of a higher being."
"Is Sam giving gift's to us now?" Richtofen mused quietly to himself. "And vhat took so long?"
"Perhaps she is gifting us for defeating her herrspawn?" Takeo suggested, having heard Richtofen question himself and remembered their combined efforts in making Samantha take her pet away to get healed.
"That does not make any sense whatsoever." Nikolai replied in a dismissive tone. "Why would that fucking annoying little girl reward us for hurting her giant-flaming annoying pet?"
"What about the times where we could collect those glowing, froating icons from the corpses of the undead?" Takeo asked. He was getting noticeably better at speaking english now, having been able to include the L's in some of the words.
"This is Samantha we are talking about. Remember? The little girl whose haunting us because she wants to torment us because of him?" The sarcasm wasn't lost on Takeo who was staring at Nikolai as he gestured to Richtofen, who looked offended at the accusation, but didn't defend himself because it was true. "Who knows what is going through that head of hers?"
Takeo eventually nodded. "Indeed. The mind of a child is unpredictable."
As Takeo and Nikolai were conversing/arguing with one another with Richtofen listening in with little to no interest – Nikolai does say some funny things once in a while, sue him – the other humans 'including the cheetah's who were on the roof tops are staring at the tank with wide disbelieving eyes.
Frank rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. When the tank didn't disappear he turned to Mason who was also staring at the tank with wide disbelieving eyes. "Are you seeing what I'm seeing Alex!?"
Mason slowly nodded with a partially open mouth. "Yeah, Woods. I'm seeing but I'm not believing."
Hudson pinched the bridge of his nose in disbelief. "Just what have we gotten ourselves into?" He questioned himself exasperatingly.
"I-I have no choice but to believe you now." Hunter stammered out. He quickly looked at the rooftops and bringing his thumb and forefinger to his mouth, he whistled out a high pitched tune, signalling the rest of his unit to come out of hiding. They did so in the most spectacular way possible. By leaping off the rooftops and from high in the air they did several flips before landing on the ground in a squat in an overly dramatic manner.
The sheer awesomeness the newly appeared cheetah's were showing when they made their appearance was ruined when Nikolai let out a disgusting belch. It made the anthropomorphic animals trip on their own feet. The humans couldn't help but give Nikolai disapproving looks.
"Ok, that was disgusting." Polonsky deadpanned as he frowned disapprovingly at the Russian with crossed arms. He pulled a face and fanned the air when a disgusting scent reached his nose. "Oh-wow, that smell is even worse. It's like..."
"A breath that smells like alcohol?" Miller suggested helpfully also fanning the air in front of him.
Polonsky clicked his fingers."Yeah! Exactly that!" He exclaimed. He then turned to Nikolai and curiously asked, "Why do you drink anyway? Wouldn't it make you less combat effective?" Everyone, apart from Takeo and Dempsey and Richtofen, as they already know of the reason, looked at the drunk Russian with a degree of curiousness.
Even the cheetah's who were giving the humans wary filled looks were now looking at him expectantly.
Nikolai with lazy eyes, gazed at everyone, before shrugging his shoulder uncaringly. "I don't remember why I drink. But I've been drinking vodka ever since we were in that fucking swamp. What was it called again? Shi No nunga?"
"Shi No Numa?" Takeo corrected with flat imperiousness.
Nikolai, being who he is, completely ignored Takeo's arrogant tone. In fact, he ignored Takeo completely, causing the modern samurai narrow his eyes at him darkly.
Polonsky looked between the two a little nervously. "Was it called Shi No Numa?" He tried in Takeo's stead. To his and everyone surprise, Nikolai practically rushed up to the teenager and bear hugged him.
"Da! Thank you for reminding me American!" He exclaimed. "You are good friend for reminding me!" Polonsky let out a pained gasp when the Russian lifted him off the group while tightening his hold. It made the scene awkward, yet insanely funny.
Takeo narrowed his eyes at Nikolai again before he scoffed in a dismissive manner. He wasn't going to get himself involved in this foolishness. He would rather kill himself than to allow that to happen.
"Humans are weird..." A cheetah whispered to his friend who nodded her head in agreement with him. She had a light smile on her maw however as she found the scene in front of her amusing.
"They all have their interesting quirks though, you have to admit." She replied.
Richtofen shook his head in exasperation at Nikolai and Polonsky. Trust him to get everyone distracted. But he had to thank Nikolai for the distraction though. Now he can get a close examination of that tank without any interruptions.
Walking to the now outdated tank Richtofen ran a hand over it and frowned thoughtfully. He had seen the tank before, a long time ago, but can't remember where and when he had seen it. Thinking back in an attempt to remember he growled in annoyance when there was a blank. He can't remember the year it was. And he didn't like it. But he knew it involved Group 935, himself, and five others but cannot remember who the other five were.
It frustrated him to no end!
"So... who wants to be first to get inside that bad boy?" Dempsey asked. His poor choice of words was taken the wrong way by pretty much everyone.
Richtofen turning to the American with a smirk couldn't resist getting a jab in. "Oh? Finally admitting your sexuality to us at long last Demphsey? I vas wondering if you were a homosexual."
"Oh?! And what about you mister 'do you like my glowing green balls'?" Dempsey replied with a mocking sneer. "You've been making a whole lot of queer comments lately!" He pulled a face when he looked down at his trousers. "Kinda sick of me to ask this, but Richtofen, is that a rod in your pocket?"
Richtofen felt his eyes widen. Oh for the love of- "Nien! Let's go!" The German quickly replied and quickly climbed the tank. The awkwardness that followed afterwards was deafening.
"...I ain't goin' up there with him." Dempsey said after a minute of awkward silence. He along with everyone else took a cautious step away from the tank when Richtofen leaned over the safety railing, giving them all expectant looks.
"Vell? Are any of you going to come up?"
All the humans looked at one another for a quick moment before turning back to the German."We are all fine down here, on the ground, Richtofen. Thanks for askin' though." Dempsey replied, after seeing no one else was going to respond.
The Nazi looked disappointed for a moment. Then he shrugged and like a true sociopath that he was, he turned and walked away. Then began laughing like a deranged mad man. Understandably everyone that wasn't use to Richtofen jumped in surprise and unconsciously took another step back away from the tank.
The cheetah's were understandably startled by Richtofen's... less than sane laughter and gave the humans who were with him looks of... pity?
"You all were with him?" One of the unnamed male cheetah's stated blankly as he pointed a clawed finger at the tank.
"Not us three." Polonsky corrected as he gestured to himself, Miller and Roebuck. He then pointed to Dempsey, Nikolai and Takeo and said, "They were the ones who spent most of their time with him."
The cheetah who spoke before looked at the three humans with a pitied look. "I pity you three." He said to them with closed eyes and because of this he didn't see Takeo and Dempsey shake their heads in annoyance. Nikolai however was mumbling incoherently to himself as he stared lazily up at the tank, pointedly ignoring everyone else.
A female cheetah with brown fur stepped forward and with a salute questioned her leader on their new orders.
Hunter seeing the tank magically appear, and now believing there was some higher being watching them' did one thing that was logical to him. "I want the parameters of this village searched and secured. Any apes you encounter, interrogate them for information, then terminate with extreme prejudice."
Upon the mentioning the apes the cheetah's noticeably straightened. Their moods became grim. They knew how dangerous the apes were. They brought dragon kind almost to extinction after all, and enslaved thousands of other races under their rule. The cheetah's were some of the few lucky ones that manage to avoid that fate. Unfortunately many of their minor villages had to be abandoned when the apes came in the hundreds. They were able to kill off the apes when they tried to search for their major hidden villages. They never did find them. Their hit and runner's made sure to that.
Saluting the cheetah's turned and leapt up to the rooftops where they quickly left their line of sight. Hunter, knowing they would do their job, turned to the humans and chuckled lightly when he saw them looking at the roofs with awed faces.
"Now that you've told me about this spirit able to raise and control the dead..." Hunter said bringing everyone's attention back to him. He gazed between them all one by one, mainly at Dempsey, Takeo and Nikolai. "...what else is the spirit capable of?"
Polonsky, Miller and Roebuck looked pointedly at Takeo, Dempsey and Nikolai – Richtofen was still on the tank therefore no one stared at him – they were the ones with the most experience. Therefore they were the ones with the most knowledge.
Takeo, Nikolai and Dempsey shared an uneasy glance before they turned back to Hunter. "Well, apart from being able to raise the dead and have them fight at her beck and call..."
After an undetermined amount of time Dempsey had finished giving Hunter everything he knew of Samantha's capabilities. Takeo and Nikolai helped in their own way by filling in the gaps. "...And that's all we know of her powers. She may have more but she hasn't shown them thus far."
Hunter stroked his chin grimly. Samantha – Dempsey had revealed the girl's name during the explaination – for reasons unknown helps the group by resupplying them with ammunition for their weapons, or have these floating glowing symbols' appear after they kill one of the walking dead that tips the balance in their favour. However the floating symbols appear once in a while so they do not appear constantly.
Then there was a mysterious box that cycles through weapons that are either weak or powerful against their undead forces. However the box is a gamble, as it randomly chooses a weapon for the one who opened it. Too add to that Samantha can 'remove' the box from it's location and place it somewhere away from them if the cycle stopped on a teddy bear. How that work's Hunter had no idea but given what he had seen so far, he felt it was better not to question about it.
Everyone else was, understandably, giving Dempsey a 'are you sure you're ok in the head?' look. They have not been through what Dempsey and the other three have, but still, it sounded completely unbelievable! Like a child had came up with it! But Samantha had the mentality of a child. Even though she was over 50,000 years old. Plus, Polonsky, Miller and Roebuck heard Samantha speak before. And they all saw the blonde haired marine pull out a camera guided missile launcher out of his ass!
Really, at this point they should expect the unexpected.
X.X.X.X
It was midnight in Warfang and the city guards consisting of both dragons and moles were currently on high alert. If they were attacked again they would be able to muster their defences a lot earlier than they were before. They were taken by surprise last time. It was, in Volteer's words, 'completely, positively, and absolutely unacceptable'. This time they had more moles patrolling on the city walls, the guard towers and the city streets. They had multiple shifts to do to last through the night. But the hours were six hours long. Long enough that the guards who were off duty could rest long enough to be rejuvenated before retaking their post.
The dragons patrolling the city from above is being led by four dragons, three of them being led by the remaining three Dragon Guardians and a fire dragoness. When Terrador began appointing dragons' to patrol the city from the skies he wanted some volunteers as there were many of them who were injured in the last battle.
Quake after witnessing what they were up against when he was with Dempsey, quickly signed up at the chance and was automatically taken under Terrador's command and armoured up. The earth dragons were the physically strongest dragons Warfang had to offer and are the city's best defenders. They were given the plaza in the centre of Warfang to patrol.
The fire dragons were being led by a ruby red scaled dragoness called Frida. While not a Dragon Guardian, the fire dragoness is of great renown, known for fiercely fighting Cynder's dark army when she was known as The Terror of the Skies with a small company of dragons and dragonesses, and actually kept them at bay for years until the Well of Souls, also known as the Mountain of Malefor, collapsed on the Night of Eternal Darkness. Being fire dragons Frida and her group were the best offensive Warfang had so they helped the moles patrol the city walls.
Volteer and the electric dragons were the second best assault group. While known for being able to use electricity, in terms of power' they were potentially as powerful as fire dragons' but were weak when it comes to the defence capabilities of the earth dragons. Because of this Volteer's group would be patrolling the streets close to Frida.
Cyril and the ice dragons were perhaps the most well balanced of the four. Utilising their ice breath, their defences are almost as strong as the earth dragons. They're also adaptable if they're going on the attack. They would be just in front of Terrador's group.
This way they would be able to spot any invaders and act accordingly before they would do any real damage.
The remaining group, apart from Quake and Spyro, that were taken captive by the apes the day before had retired to homes that were provided to them. Nearly all of them were too tired to be of much help.
Speaking of Spyro, after he was outfitted with armour, he and Sparx began to check on the city's warehouses to see how much supply of food they all had. There were a few at the market district which was near the plaza in the centre of the city. Walking down the street toward the market district, being mindful to move out of the way of the patrols, Spyro gazed around at his surroundings. Several hanging lanterns were lit on allowing the patrols and Spyro to move through the streets unhindered.
He could hear the familiar flapping of wings of his kin from above. Knowing the city was on high alert had served to settle some of the unease he had felt when Terrador told him the undead could make another attack. Morale wasn't high but it wasn't low either. Understandable, considering what they're up against.
"Everyone seems a little tense." Sparx said off handedly as he looked at the armoured moles do their hourly patrol. "You think it's because of the... undead?" He asked, pausing hesitantly near the end as he looked at his adoptive brother.
Spyro couldn't help but roll his eyes as the answer should be pretty obvious by now that Terrador told them there may be an attack in the near future. Though Sparx didn't see it as he was floating close behind his head in case he needed to hide.
"It's possible Sparx." Spyro answered anyway. "The closest thing to these things would have been the skeletal apes we fought when we were making our way to the burning lands."
Sparx shuddered at the memory. Those things were just plain creepy. Annoying as hell. But plain creepy. "Don't remind me. I still have the shudders of from just visualising them in my head." He enforced this by shuddering. Again.
The adoptive brothers finally got to the plaza and suddenly stopped in front of a building and looked up. They were finally at one of the warehouses in Warfang. Giving one another meaningful looks the dragon and dragonfly came up and entered the building, with Spyro shoving the door open with his horns as he did so.
Sparx looking around couldn't help but let out a whistle of appreciation at what he saw. Hundreds upon hundreds of neatly stacked crates that contained meat, bread, fruit and vegetables and sacks that was either full to the brim of grain and wheat. There were a few sacks that were half full and fewer that were empty.
"Not bad. The place is packed to the brim with food." Sparx mused out loudly to himself as he brought his hand up to stroke his chin. "How many warehouses did Terrador say we have check out again?"
"Three. So there's two more to go."
"And they're at the plaza too, right?"
"Yes. They're in the opposite directions from this one." Answered Spyro before he gave the room a once over one last time before he turned and head back outside of the building with Sparx following.
Trailing after Spyro to the next warehouse across the plaza opposite from the one they just exited from the glowing yellow dragonfly gazed up at the night sky. If he looked hard enough and allowed his eyes adjust to the darkness he would be able to make out the faint outlines of the patrolling dragons above. It eased his nerves somewhat. Knowing that the dragons are keeping an eye on things from where they are. Upon reaching the second warehouse Spyro approached the door. He paused, hearing movement from the inside. Narrowing his eyes a bit the purple dragon of legend leaned in, pressing the side of his head against the door to hear better. When he saw his half-brother about to open his mouth to speak, he pushed the bottom end of his tail against his mouth and shook his head before leaning back against the door.
He frowned more when he heard several movements. Along with moaning although it had no emotion behind it. Almost as if the person was... Eyes widening in realisation at what was behind the door, Spyro growled darkly before he backed away from the door.
"Err, Spyro, buddy are you alright?" Asked Sparx, understandably concerned and a little freaked out at how his adoptive brother was acting.
Spyro didn't reply. Instead once he deemed was far enough away he charged the doors with his horns being used as a battering ram. He slammed against the doors but they held strong. Growling Spyro backed up before charging in the doors again. This time the doors gave way a little and alerted the people inside.
"Sparx..." Said dragonfly paused when he opened his mouth to ask another question. He hadn't heard his brother sound so serious since he was going to go through the burning lands to get to the Dark Master. "Go and get the others. Tell them that the walking dead are in the city!"
The second the last words left his mouth Spyro charged the door again with a battle cry. The door was thrown open the moment he collided with it, knocking several zombies off their feet and on to their backs.
Glancing back to see if his brother was gone, Spyro narrowed his eyes and growled in exasperation when he saw that he had not, and was still there in the same place with a shocked look on his face.
"Sparx! Go! Now!" He roared before he was forced to roll to the side when a zombie – a human wearing a suit similar to Richtofen he realised only a faded grey – lunged at him.
That knocked Sparx out of his shock and seeing the dire state his adoptive brother was in he turned and flew to get help. Seeing his brother flying off Spyro let a small smirk pull at his lips before he frowned with seriousness and turned his focus back to the enemies that somehow infiltrated the city.
Taking a quick glance at the containments of the warehouse he noticed three things. One: more that half of the food stores were spoiled and laying on the floor and those that weren't were likely contaminated. Two: there was a Big. Fucking. Hole. In the middle of said warehouse. How no one heard that being made he'll never know. And three: among the crowd of undead are apes. Unlike the ones he saw when he was captured by them, these had sinister glowing eyes like the zombies. Difference is theirs are a dark red instead of yellow. He could see their glowing green veins showing through their fur and skin.
"What. The. Fu-" His words died in his mouth when he was forced to move when one of the altered apes leaped at him with an inhuman roar that could be heard for yards around. Spyro snorted, thinking how idiotic the apes were to give away their position so quickly.
Quickly looking around Spyro found the zombies gathering in front of him with the apes trying to direct him somewhere by taking pock shots at him. He wasn't going to take that lying down and showed them that when he bit down on the arm of one of the apes and tore off a chunk of skin when they tried to swipe at him.
The ape didn't make any reaction upon having a large chunk of his skin ripped off of his arm, like the purple dragon had been expecting. Instead the ape merely growled before taking another swipe forcing Spyro to duck underneath the swipe and lash out with his tail, wounding the ape on the chest, staggering back and spraying Spyro's face with blood. Again the ape didn't make any reaction. It was as if it couldn't feel any pain from wounds dealt to it whatsoever.
Wiping the blood from his eyes Spyro made a face and spat the chunk of skin on to the floor, spitting several more times to make sure there was no foreign substances in his mouth. He didn't know what changed the apes into what they are now and he wasn't going to take any chances if their blood was affected. Luckily for him he didn't swallow so he had nothing to worry about. Yet.
Growling in defiance Spyro inhaled through his mouth and upon feeling the familiar heat welling up in his chest he exhaled the air from his lungs. He felt the heat combine itself with oxygen making the heat become ten times hotter, before rushing up his throat and out his mouth like a jet of fire. Literally.
When they were set aflame the undead and apes merely groaned and moaned in discomfort. The ones who were up front had dulled the flames that managed to get past them. Then, several seconds later, they collapsed to the floor. Dead. They didn't move from their spot while they burned.
"Well," Spyro thought in crude humour. "It's not like they can help being stupid."
Halting the stream of fire Spyro realised he had an opening and quickly got out of the warehouse while he had the chance. Just in time too as an group of apes, a total of four, leapt through the flames with their hands outstretched. Spyro noted idly that their finger's had nails with sharpened end tips that resembled claws. He wasn't sure how they'd fair against a dragon's scales, nor he wasn't willing to find out.
Facing the apes to go on the offensive the purple dragon changed his flame breath to ice. He could feel the change as he switched breath attacks. The sheering heat that was raging in his throat steadily being replaced by a chilling cold that was bordering on freezing. Opening his maw Spyro froze the undead and apes as they tried to get through the door way and switched his breath again to the earth element before using it to shatter the frozen beings in front of him to pieces.
Of course this didn't deter them from trying to catch the dragon. As one the crowd of zombies and partially transformed apes rushed the doorway. Being the stupid, brainless, undead beings that they are the zombies had no sense of preservation so when Spyro hit them with his lightning element the zombies didn't flinch. Their nerves were long dead however so the pain didn't register.
The apes were the same, 'though they did flinch a little when the lightning struck their torsos. That told the purple dragon whatever had happened to them made them incredibly resilient to pain, if what him ripping off a large chunk of that apes' arm and using his tail to cut the same monkey deeply on the chest was any clue. Everyone instinctively looked up when they heard a loud roar, and found several dragons heading towards them. Snapping his head back when he heard one of the apes let out an agitated grunt, he saw a crossbow bolt had struck the ape in the chest. Where the heart is. Yet, the furry bastard was still standing!
Looking down the ape scowling before he reached up to grab the bolt, and with a firm grip yanked it out of his skin without as much as a flinch. Looking back up it gave Spyro a mocking, feral grin before its expression was replaced by one of shock when a second bolt suddenly hit him in the forehead. The ape then slumped to the ground. With a pool of blood running spreading across the ground from the apes forehead it was obvious the monkey was dead.
Seconds later several more crossbow bolts whistled through the air and struck the zombies and apes. Some had struck their heads, killing them instantly, while others had either pierced different body parts. The earth dragons, landed on the ground with a ground shaking 'thud' before they let out another roar that was greatly enhanced by their earth element, making the earth seemingly quake at the combined roar, that literally threw the zombies and apes off their feet.
Spyro helped out by launching a spiked ice-ball in the middle of a group of ferociously howling apes that had managed to get away and were approaching the doorway. The moment the ice-ball went in the middle of the approaching apes it exploded into tiny little spikes that spread in all directions, easily piercing and killing the apes and zombies around it. This was followed by several more crossbow bolts whistling through the air, killing the zombies and apes with a bolt to the head that weren't caught in the explosion of shards.
It seemed the crossbow users had learnt from before: the undead are killed easier when their shot in the head. Same goes for the apes too. This was followed up by the earth dragons using their earth element that took on a form of a rock like missile. It easily tore apart the zombies and apes inside the building and with the doorway cleared the moles moved in, firing their crossbows on any zombie or apes in the head when they were spotted. The dragons trailed inside among them.
"S-Spyro!" Said purple dragon arched a scaled eyebrow as he turned, and saw Sparx flying to him while he panted in clear exhaustion. "I-I found the, the help you wanted." The glowing dragonfly wheezed out before collapsing on Spyro's shout. "God I'm tired."
Spyro chucked good humouredly before he plucked Sparx off his snout and replaced him on his head. "I can see that." He looked at the doorway with a squinted frown. "They're getting smarter Sparx. They are digging beneath the city and I'm afraid to know where that tunnel leads."
"Indeed." Spyro turned his head around when he heard Terrador speak. While he gave Spyro a pleased smile, it was gloom."And my suspicions were partially correct. They were going to test the water's of our defence from within the city this time. And without you and Sparx patrolling in the plaza, we wouldn't have known about this until it was too late." He frowned as he gazed at the corpses littering the doorway and the inside of the warehouse. His frown deepened when he saw the ruined sacks and crates that once contained the food stores. "And with them almost destroying one of our food stores it will surely have repercussions in the near future."
"But food can be remade right?"
Terrador nodded at Sparx's question. "Indeed. With time our food can be replenished. But that could take months, and with this one having been touched by the walking dead we will have little choice but to destroy the remaining food supplies inside. The risk of being infected is too high and that is a risk I am NOT willing to take."
"Hmm, you have a good point." Sparx admitted as he tiredly as he leaned back against one of Spyro's horns with a relaxed sigh. "I mean if someone were to eat from that warehouse then there is a high chance they could get sick and eventually die, making the sickness spread and eventually killing more and more people before you would have a chance to stop it."
Spyro glanced up at Sparx on his head with unblinking eyes in shock. Terrador even had his mouth open slightly. Sparx blinked before he looked at Terrador with a raised eyebrow. Slowly the golden dragonfly became irritated at the look Terrador was giving him and said, "What? I can be smart when I want to be!", as he crossed his arms against his chest with a childish pout.
"Yeah, but, you hardly say anything smart. At all." Sparx merely blew a raspberry at Spyro in response who chuckled good naturedly.
"Master Terrador!" Both dragons and dragonfly turned to the voice to see one of the moles approaching them from the warehouse. The mole saluted respectively to the Dragon Guardian when he stopped in front of the three before standing at attention. "The warehouse is cleared, however, the remaining enemies retreated through a cave system that lies in the middle of the room. What are your orders? Should we persist or hold our ground?"
The earth dragon frowned but didn't say anything. Gazing at Spyro, who was looking up at him with expectation, Terrador motioned the purple dragon to follow him before he headed inside. Gazing at one another in awkward silence Spyro and Sparx that their species equivalent of a shrug before following the earth guardian inside.
It was as bad as Spyro figured it would be. Nearly all of the sacks of grain and crates of meat, fruit and vegetables were destroyed. Only a quarter remained and even then those would have to be destroyed in case they were contaminated. There was a lot of blood splatters on the walls, sacks, crates and the floor along with the bodies of their slain saboteurs. Terrador was standing at the edge of the massive hole, looking down it with a deep frown on his maw. He wondered how no one heard any commotion from the building while this was being made.
Just how did the enemy manage to get this far in the city without being alerted? And from past experiences, the earth guardian knew there would be more than one, and if his hunch was right then this hole would lead them to the source.
"Spyro, you said you wanted to help against these foes correct?" Said purple dragon perked up at that and nodded his head vigorously. Terrador nodded and turned fully to face the teenage dragon, bringing himself to his full imposing height. "Very well. As we can't spare anyone to see where this hole leads too, I'm entrusting you, young warrior, to go and see where this leads and report back with your findings." He paused for a moment to let this sink in Spyro's head then he continued, "If you are spotted by anyone down there that is not alive, or an ape, remove them. And if you can avoid any and all conflicts unless it is unavoidable."
Spyro nodded firmly. He knew how serious this was. While he wasn't one for pussyfooting around, he knew when to run and hide and when to stand and fight. He always did the latter when Cynder was being controlled by Malefor and did the former when Cynder was chasing after him until Ignitus appeared and saved him. Then he did the combination of the two he was searching for Cynder when she left the dragon temple a few months after he freed her from Malefor's influence.
"Great. Another adventure. Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse you get sent on another mission that means life or death for all of us." Sparx whined in an overly dramatic fashion.
Spyro shook his head with amusement. "You don't have to come you know?" He replied as he walked to the edge of the hole.
"What and let you get lost in a middle of nowhere with no one around to keep you company?" The dragonfly looked offended at the idea. Though Spyro could tell Sparx was joking as he heard the mocking tone in his voice when he spoke. "Yeah. Like I'm just going to allow THAT to happen."
Spyro chuckled before looking down the hole. Given how big it was, it was enough for a fully grown dragon to fit in. It seemed to go on forever and he didn't know how deep it was. He looked at the sides and saw a make shift ladder stuck in the earth where he was standing.
"Used to let the dead and the apes climb out of the tunnel it looks like." Spyro thought obviously to himself. He glanced at Sparx who was hovering beside him looking down the tunnel as well. "With Sparx with me he can show the path and make sure I don't crash into any walls."
"So... whose going in first?" Sparx asked a little reluctantly. A few seconds of silence Spyro slowly turned his head to look at the dragonfly intensely. It practically unnerved the little dragon fly a bit at the look Spyro was giving him. But it became all too clear to him that his adoptive brother wanted him to go in first. Sparx deadpanned at Spyro before he rolled his eyes and said with sarcasm,"Oh, alright, fine, I'll be the brave one out of the two of us and go in first."
Spyro rolled his eyes as Sparx flew in the tunnel and turned to Terrador who had been watching the two's antics with mild amusement. "The two of us will be back as soon as we can."
"I know you will. Be careful and may our Ancestor's guide you and keep you safe in your journey." Spyro nodded in both thanks and respect before he jumped and flipped in the tunnel after Sparx.
Flapping his wings to gain altitude and to make sure he wouldn't crash prematurely it wasn't long until he had caught up to Sparx who stopped to wait for his brother a fair distance in before he resumed moving when Spyro caught up to him.
"Took you long enough. I was beginning to wonder if you chickened out?" Sparx mockingly taunted the purple dragon with a sly grin.
Spyro, knowing what Sparx was trying to do, smirked and replied. "What and miss out on seeing you handle yourself in a fight? Never!"
The grin on Sparx grew, seeing his brother taking part in their banter. "Oh-ho-ho? Need I remind you who among the two of us is worshipped as a god by a certain llama people?" He replied before raising his head with a look of mock superiority and pride on his face.
"Well if I remember correctly it surely wasn't you they're worshipping." At Sparx's mock indignation Spyro shook his head as he chuckled in amusement. "If anything they were looking at me in admiration and worship, seeing as I was the one who beat their last 'god' in a one on one fight."
"Hey, I helped too! I was the one who kept yelling out the rock golem's weak points to you." Sparx said in mock seriousness.
"Yeah... from several yards away... where you wouldn't be close enough to be dragged in." The two stared at one another with a straight face for a solid three seconds. Then they started laughing uproariously.
"You know, most of my fondest memories were of us going on adventures to save the world. I missed them."
"I did too, Sparx. I did too..." By the time their conversation and antics were done, the strange duo were already several feet underground. So far as they made several turns through the tunnel in front of them they had not encountered any enemies as of yet. However both Spyro and Sparx knew it wouldn't be long until they do run in to someone.