Author's Note: I would like to thank Jonah-EN for reviewing, seeing as he's the only one who does anymore. After these two chapters I'm posting today I will be officially at the point where I am writing, so send me inspiring reviews to relieve my bad case of writer's block. Also, there is a new poll on my profile to help determine what story I should do next. I decided I didn't want to do Tyler and Clink, or Star Fox Nex Gen, or Power of the Crystals. The two options on the poll are as follows:
Trial of the Heroes II: Trial and Error, the sequel to Trial of the Heroes which will include Sly Cooper and Ratchet and Clank characters along with a few more Jak and Daxter characters.
Nintendo Crossover (Codename: Trial of the Heroes Nintendo Edition), AU to TotH including the Mario Bros. from Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga, Link (OoT version) from Legend of Zelda, the Star Fox team from Star Fox, Samus Aran from Metroid, and Solid Snake from Metal Gear Solid. Tell me what you want after this story, after you've given me inspiring reviews; Geek out.
Chapter 5:
Trial by Fire
A sound like thunder erupted from a bank of smoke as two forms blasted through. Spyro and Cynder had taken a break inside the two Hellcat fighters for the time, saving their strength for the fight ahead. Before them extended the Burnt Lands: a fiery wasteland enclosing the area around the entrance to Malefor's prison inside of the gigantic volcano that dominated the skyline. They flew down low and landed on a flat area on the rim of the volcano's crater, right next to a small trail downwards. The Heroes exited the two vehicles, hoisted their weapons onto their shoulders if they had one, and trekked down into the volcano's depths. The trail was dangerously small and the largest of the group (Jak and Crunch) had to walk sideways. Spyro and Cynder were flying next to the trail and enjoying a freedom of movement which their ground-bound fellows could not enjoy. Suddenly, the already perilous situation became much more so.
"Damn!" he swore as bolts of Dark Eco only barely missed his face, though the lime green hairs of his goatee got a singing. Upon turning their heads, the Heroes were greeted with the sight of flying Metalheads launching Dark Eco bolts at them. Cynder bulleted towards one, grabbed it, kicked and scratched it with her powerful back claws, and threw it down into the depths. Spyro joined her by executing a similar maneuver on one of the others. A few spit balls of poison from Cynder quickly took out the other two and left the Heroes with a temporary peace.
"Guys, stay on the alert, they could attack at any minute," Spyro warned, but too late as a Plasmite bomb flew up and destroyed the ground under Jak's feet.
"FFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…" Jak screamed, his voice fading out before his swear could be completed. Daxter just managed to cling to the edge closer to the bottom and was hoisted up by Crash. The explosion had made a gap in the trail that was too big to jump, effectively separating Crash and Daxter from Coco, Crunch, and Keira. Soon enough the perpetrator showed their face: Erol in a KG Deathbot mech.
"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You fools are too late, we are already well into the process of releasing Malefor and there is nothing you fools can do. But, while you're here…" Erol grinned evilly as he raised one gun arm of the mech. "Say goodbye-ahhh!" Erol yelled as Spyro threw himself at the arm, forcing it off aim. "You little…" Erol swung one arm of the mech at Spyro and caught him in a death grip. In a feat of bravery (or simply gallant stupidity) Crash leapt onto the arm of the mech, aimed his Bazooka at Erol's face in the cockpit, and fired a Wumpa, which splattered across the windshield. One of the mech's hands came up to wipe the fruit off the glass, but in the process he both released Spyro and tilted the other arm so that Crash fell off. Spyro caught Crash on his back so that the bandicoot did not fall like Jak. Erol had finished wiping the Wumpa off of his windshield and now pointed his guns at Crash and Spyro with a vengeance.
"Cynder," he called to the black dragoness. "Get Coco, Crunch, and Keira out of here, we'll distract him!"
"No!" Coco interjected. "We want to stay and help!" Crunch nodded in agreement.
"Coco, you're not helping, you guys can't do anything right now, leave this to us!" Crash growled. Coco sniffed but followed their orders as she, Crunch, and Keira followed Cynder to the top of the crater.
"Hey, what about me?" he shouted indignantly. However, he was ignored as Erol pointed one arm up at the top of the trail, intending to destroy it with another bomb but a beaker launched by Crash knocked its aim off. The Villain growled and flew the mech upwards so that he could take the ones they cared about down with a few well placed shots, but Crash and Spyro were on his tail.
"Crash, hang on!" Spyro called as he sped up significantly, climbed very high up above Erol, tucked his wings in, and dived straight at the mech's back. He curled up and cast a shield of Earth around them before colliding into the thick armor plating. Erol was knocked far back, away from the volcano and into the space above the wide valley of the Burnt Lands. Crash and Spyro flew so they were in front of him; both the Heroes and the Villain put on battle poses and began.
Erol began with a barrage of bullets fired in streams at the Heroes, who easily avoided the fire while Crash shot some beakers at the Gatling guns on either arm. Next, ports in his shoulders opened and Eco rockets flew out to try and hit the two Heroes, but were deflected back at him by an Earth shielded barrel roll. The two rockets connected with their points of origin and exploded, causing all the unused rockets to explode as well and make those ports useless. Another volley of Gatling gunfire was responded to with beakers which managed to destroy the weapons. The forearms of the robot flipped so that instead of the destroyed Gatling guns, the Heroes were faced with laser dishes. Erol put his right mech arm forward, charged it up, and unleashed a stream of Blue Eco at them. Spyro flew around it and once all the energy had been expended, unleashed fireballs that made the dish useless. After a similar episode with the second, he did the same thing and left Erol seemingly defenseless…seemingly. Erol put together the two arms and arcs of Eco laced between them. It soon became clear that he was creating a Peacemaker-like weapon which he would launch at them with disastrous results. However, the two Heroes were distracted as the sound of Hellcat engines came from behind.
"I am not being left behind!" she shouted angrily as she unleashed a barrage of Yellow Eco bolts at the ball of electricity.
"Coco NO!" he yelled, but too late as the reaction between the two Ecos created an explosion which drove the mech into a crazy somersault with its limbs spread wide and knocked the two Heroes out of the air and onto a plateau.
They landed with an explosion of ash straight into a stalagmite of brimstone, which broke into a thousand pieces as soon as they made contact. One ruby red, transparent stone was knocked into Crash's arms, upon which it floated into the air and became a fiery looking mask.
"Look bandicoot," Pyro drawled, "I don't have time to have a lengthy conversation with you like Rok-Ko did. All you need to know is that I am now granting a fiery power to your Wumpa fruit. Those things are loaded with sugar, and sugar burns real good so they'll do more damage. Believe me, you're gonna need it." Pyro turned back into the Red Gem, the color seeped into Crash, and the now Clear Gem landed on the ground. Crash picked up his Bazooka and turned it to the Wumpa setting just as Erol came up to face Crash. Spyro had been knocked out by the crash into the rock and now Crash was left all alone. Blue Eco glowed at the ends of the arms where they had been destroyed by the blast and Precursor Metal came up from the rocks to attach themselves to the ends of the arms and create new forearms with large, four fingered hands one the end. Daxter emerged from where he had been hiding on Crash's back all this time, blackened by soot, and stared at the robot and its giant forearms.
"Oh that is so not fair!" he shouted indignantly as Erol charged Red Eco in one fist of Precursor Metal and slammed it into the ground to create a huge shockwave which Crash only barely dodged. Crash launched the new, fiery Wumpa at the palm of the hand, which was shown to be where he charged the Eco. It closed into a fist before Crash could destroy it and was swung down in a right hook that Crash just barely rolled away from. Erol charged Yellow Eco in the palm of the left hand and threw the ball of energy at Crash like a baseball, though Crash dodged it. He fired more fireballs of the sugary fruit at the left hand and managed to make it explode when the Gem Energy reacted with the Eco. Erol slammed a Red Eco slap to the ground near Crash which he dodged by jumping and landed on the top. This he had not meant to do and he was shaken off his feet when the hand lifted. The villain smiled evilly and drew back his hand in preparation of backslapping a spire of brimstone and smashing Crash into an orange pulp. Crash quickly clambered up to the top of the palm and leapt down onto the ground again before the hand made contact with the brimstone. Erol pulled at the hand as it stuck in the brimstone and broke off the new forearm. He growled, faced Crash who had now returned to Spyro's side and yelled.
"Arghh! I hoped I wouldn't be forced to use this!" The plates of the mech's chest armor opened up to reveal a large hole. Dark Eco began charging up in that area, to be thrown at the Heroes to obliterate them! Crash began firing at a near unbelievable pace until with a huge explosion of Dark Eco, the mech was destroyed. The head of the mech flew up close to him and stopped, revealing that Erol still lived and was not happy. "You still haven't won Heroes, Malefor should be released by now and we can begin the conquering of the Universe. We Villains shall reign triumphant!" he shouted as he flew away and disappeared into a portal. Crash picked up Spyro, fired at the hand stuck in the brimstone spire so that it blew up and left the way to the Hellcat fighters clear. There they could go and wait for Jak and whatever news came from the bottom of the volcano.