The Electric Dragon
Chapter 10: Investigation for the Return
Cole wasn't sure how long he and Cynder hugged each other. But when they broke apart, he felt immensely better; glad that they finally understood each other. Cole smiled at her, but she still had a small frown on her face.
"You're still hurt, how can I make up for that?" she asked.
Cole stood up and walked to a power circuit in the garage, and turned to Cynder, "Don't worry," he said reassuringly, "I've gotten worse then these," indicating the marks. After saying that, Cole faced the circuit again, and began draining the energy from it; arcs of electricity flew to him, as it healed his injuries in a flash.
Cynder was very startled by this. 'What human has power like this?' she thought to herself. Spyro chuckled quietly, and walked up beside Cynder before answering what she was thinking. "Cole, is a conduit. He can control electricity, and uses it to help others, like me."
Cynder nodded, she wasn't exactly sure how that worked, but was glad to hear that he helped Spyro incredibly. "You said that before, Spyro," turning her neck to him. "How exactly did he help you?"
As Spyro explained about the events upon their arrival, Cole went to the entrance to hallway, "You can out, now," he said irritably, "She won't bite." Zeke stuck his head out, "you sure about that, Cole?" He asked nervously.
Cole rubbed his eyes, "I'm pretty sure, considering she isn't trying kill me."
Zeke gave off a nervous chuckle, "Right, yeah, of course." He walked into view, Cynder looked away from Spyro to the movement at the doorway, she saw Zeke, standing there scratching the back of his head, while Cole had his arms crossed, shaking his head.
"Uh, hello there, Cynder," He hesitantly said.
"You talk just like when we found Spyro," Cole muttered under his breath so only Zeke could hear.
Cynder was not mad upon seeing Zeke, she was, instead, intrigued by his presence, since she learned that not all humans were bad. "This is Zeke," Spyro introduced. "I don't know too much about him, but I know that he is a good friend, and is even a spy."
Zeke kicked some dirt on the floor at that; he wasn't used to such praise. Spyro wasn't done though, "Without him, we would never have found you." Cole smiled and nodded in acknowledgement.
Zeke tipped an imaginary hat, and said, "A pleasure to meet you, Cynder," The dragoness giggled. Spyro rolled his eyes with a smile, "He also like to joke a lot." At this, Zeke bashfully looked away from Cynder; Cynder could only giggle louder.
"Kind of reminds me of Sparx," she said quietly.
Cole raised an eyebrow, "Who's Sparx?" he asked.
Spyro answered that question, "He's my brother from the swamp, a dragonfly."
Zeke and Cole only stared at him with questioning looks, "Not by blood, but because we grew up together. We're very close together."
Zeke spoke up, "Hey, just like me and you, Cole."
Cole nodded with a smile, and Spyro continued, "We've been through a lot together. Also, he likes to mess around quite a bit, like Zeke."
The said person threw his arms up in the air, "guilty as charged," the dragons laughed at that.
Cole chuckled a bit himself, glad that Spyro and Cynder were together again. However, he thought about the next important problem: getting them home. He had thought about it before, but pushed it aside because of the search for Cynder. Now, he had to find a way to get them back to their own world. He remembered the clouds and their behavior the day Spyro and Cynder arrived. It was like an Ionic Vortex, but it was in the clouds, and it allowed people, or dragons in this case, to traverse to other worlds.
Before he could think more about it, he heard footsteps and voices coming from above. "I'm sure the other dragon is awake by now," he heard Nix say. Kuo responded, "I know that, but would she attack us on sight?"
Spyro, Cynder, and Zeke stopped their conversation and looked to the doorway. "The only humans she knew treated her like a wild animal," They came into view, and froze at seeing Spyro and Cynder standing and staring back at them. It lingered like this until Cole spoke.
"Hey, you're back," he said, "just in time to meet Cynder," he said in the awkward silence. No one spoke, until Kuo realized she was gawking at the black dragoness, she shook her head, "Nice to meet you, Cynder," As she said this, she held out her hand to Cynder, who shook it. "I am Kuo, a friend of Cole's," She jabbed a thumb in Nix's direction, "and she is Nix."
Nix gave a scowl, "I can introduce myself, you know." she said a bit offended.
Cole chuckled, and Cynder gave a wide grin, "You helped Spyro save me, right?"
They both nodded, as if it wasn't a big deal, but Cynder made it be one. "You have my thanks, Kuo and Nix." She bowed slightly after saying this, shocking the two conduits.
"I've... never been thanked before," said Nix hesitantly, "So, you're welcome, I guess."
"Yeah, me neither," agreed Kuo, "But we didn't do much, if anybody did the most, it was Cole."
Cynder, curiosity growing, walked up to him. "Spyro and Zeke said that as well," she tilted her head, "Why did you work so hard to save me? Not that I'm ungrateful, but just curious."
Cole smiled wide, "Spyro reminded me of how I was when I had someone I cared for: devoted, and loving. And you remind me of her so much it's almost scary."
Cynder smiled at that, "Who is your lover anyway?"
Cole sighed heavily, and answered, "Well, she's gone now, but that hasn't stopped me from helping Spyro. If anything, it encouraged me to work harder, so neither one of you will feel the same pain I did."
Cynder nodded in understanding, and Cole finally came to a conclusion, "And I'm still not done helping you guys yet." Spyro and Cynder raised their brows at this. "We still need to get you guys home."
Spyro and Cynder smiled at Cole, and Spyro spoke what was on both their minds, "Thank you, Cole. You helped us tremendously, and we will return the favor eventually."
Cole nodded, "I hope so," he said sarcastically, "Being a hero isn't cheap, you know?" Everyone laughed at that.
"Okay, okay," Zeke said waving his hands in the air to calm everyone down, "Now let's go over the facts."
Cole stepped forward with hand on chin, "Well, when you two arrived, Zeke and I saw a vortex in the clouds."
"Yeah," Spyro spoke up, "Me and Cynder saw the same thing before we got sucked up by it."
"There was also a loud bang," Cynder added.
"Was there anything big occurring when this happened?" Kuo asked.
The dragons looked down in thought, then Cynder looked up, and inquired, "It was a sunny day when it happened, but in a few minutes, a storm brewed and the vortex appeared."
Cole took these facts in and anything else that came to mind: his vortex was during a cloudy day, and Spyro's was during a storm. He remembered performing an Ionic vortex the day before their arrival, and after that the clouds growing more and more dense afterwards. He preformed another Ionic Vortex the other day, which means...
An idea came to him, it was crazy, not as crazy as any of Spyro's, but it was possible. 'might as well voice my thoughts to the group and see if they agree," He concluded.
"What if," he began gaining the attention of everyone, "when ever I perform an Ionic Vortex it creates the portal between our worlds." Everyone was dead silent, wanting to hear this possibility. "After I perform one, the next day, the vortex appears."
"Yeah," Zeke grinned with comprehension, "the portal could have been harmless whenever you preformed it because no one would be around to be swept away, but when Spyro and Cynder were close to one, they got pulled in. It makes sense!"
Nix shook her head, "I'm still lost, demon, how does that help us get the dragons back."
"I just preformed an Ionic Vortex yesterday, which means..."
"...another portal will appear today!" Kuo finished excitedly. "So when does it reappear?"
"Well, I used the Ionic Vortex at 4:15, and right now it is..."
Zeke checked his watch on his wrist, "2:12, so we still have two hours 'till it appears."
Spyro shook his head, "But we still don't know where it will appear."
"Actually," Cole spoke with an excited grin, glad to finally have some answers to get his friends home, "It would be near where you crashed when you got here."
Cynder stepped up this time, "What if it appears at my crater, where I landed?"
"Nix and I can stay their," Kuo volunteered, "If it appears, we can call you, and you guys can head over."
"Then it's settled," Cole said with glee, "at 4:15, Spyro and Cynder will be back in their own world."
Everyone murmured to each other with eager after that. Cole could only smile; he was going to send a good friend home along with the love of his life. It struck the conduit that he may never see the two again, but if they were happy then he was as well. Spyro was thinking the same thing, and it bugged him that he was leaving them, and he wouldn't be able to repay their kindness.
Cole suddenly remembered the dream he had; He didn't bring it up before because it wasn't particularly relevent to the topics, but now that everything was settled, he decided to ask Spyro about the strange character he met.
He walked up to him while he was chatting with Cynder, "Hey, Spyro," the purple dragon turned to face Cole at the mention of his name, "Yeah, Cole?"
The electric took a deep breath, "Do you know a dragon called-"
Cole never finished that sentence, because at that moment the garage door burst open suprising and showering everyone with pieces of metal and concrete. The dust that kicked up made it difficult to see, which did not work in their favor.
One by one, the conduit heard the noises of darts hitting flesh and falling bodies, soon even one hit him. The event occurred to suddenly that everyone could not get a word of warning to anybody. Once the dart hit Cole, he felt the serum in it starting to put him to sleep. He fell to his knees, trying to stay awake. The sounds of footsteps echoed slightly in the room, as a tall man walked up to the electric man and he looked up to see their attackers
The man wore a long white suit with areas of black padding, black combat boots, gloves, and a metal mask. Additionally, he had a gas tank on his back. Cole recognized him, it was one of the other conduits he accidentally released when he freed Kuo.
Cole raised his right hand to defend himself, but it proved futile when the man kicked Cole in the head. Cole's head was spinning as he slowly fell unconscious.