Chapter 4: Old enemies
Ratchet asked many more questions, but Spyro waved them away, and said he could ask them all when they got to the city. With that, the two dragons fell asleep, and Clank powered down. Ratchet was unable to rest, too excited that he finally accomplished his greatest wish; to meet his race. He stared into the fire, and then finally laid down on the ground next to it and fell into a light sleep, full of happy dreams.
The next morning, Ratchet woke up to the sun, and smiled at his warmth. For a moment, he thought he was back on the capital planet of the Polaris Galaxy, ready to spend a day tinkering with mechanical objects. Then he felt the rough grass around his body, and all those thoughts were banished just as quickly as they had formed.
Ratchet opened his eyes as he sat up, back stiff from sleeping out in the open. He looked and saw Spyro cooking the remaining meat.
"So…" Ratchet said.
"I didn't answer your questions last night; I'm not going to answer them today." Spyro said without even looking up from the meat. Ratchet sighed impatiently, and then went to a secluded place in the woods to relieve himself.
He wondered if any actual relatives lived in the city. He then remembered something that he had wanted to do for a while now. He ruffled through his pocket, and he felt the small box. He had been dating Apogee Talwyn for the past two years. He got the ring and planned to propose, before the grief of Alister's death overwhelmed him. Then Clank reminded him about Quark becoming president, and decided to do it then. Now they were on another planet, maybe not even in the same dimension, and he may never get the chance to propose to the woman he loved.
Ratchet walked out of the forest, sat down, and started eating his breakfast absentmindedly. Clank powered up shortly before Ratchet finished. As Ratchet was wiping his face clean, a yellow ball of light zoomed at the group. Ratchet placed his hand on his pistol, but didn't pull it out; hoping Spyro knew what this was.
"Sparx." Spyro greeted.
"Spyro…man…I'm…outa…shape." Sparx panted. Ratchet saw he was a dragonfly with humanoid arms, and his body gave off a natural yellow glow.
"Sparx, tell me what happened, or is happening." Spyro said. Sparx took a few deep breaths so he could speak without taking breaths in-between.
"New-Hope is under attack by Cragmites." Spyro furrowed his brow. Ratchet was equally stunned, but that quickly changed to anger. Even in a different dimension, he couldn't get away from the race of monsters that slaughtered his family, and now they were trying to do it again.
"Spyro, can you carry me, I weigh about 130 pounds with another 50 of gear." Ratchet asked. Spyro closed his eyes, as if mentally calculating.
"Yes, I can" Spyro said shortly, opening his eyes. Ratchet got on Spyro's back and grabbed both horns.
"You are going have to hang on tight. I'm gonna be going fast." Spyro said.
"Ha, I've won hover races where…WHOA!" Ratchet said. Spyro took off full speed, becoming little more than a purple speck in seconds. Cynder stirred and looked at Clank, who was looking in the direction that Spyro had flown off in.
"What did I miss?" She asked. Clank looked at Cynder.
"Your husband went off with Ratchet to save New-Hope from an attack." He stated simply. Cynder growled.
"No, Cynder, it's too dangerous. No Cynder, you're too tired to fight." She said in a mocking voice, angry that Spyro left her behind.
"I'll decide if I'm too weak to fight, not…" She trailed off and winced in pain. She rolled onto her stomach and called Clank over.
"Have you ever witnessed a birth?" Cynder asked. Clank shook his head.
"Well then, it's time to learn firsthand how to deliver eggs." Cynder said.
"Do dragons have waters that break before they lay their eggs?" Clank asked.
"Yes, why?" Cynder asked.
"If that's the case, then you're in false labor." Clank said. Cynder growled again, partly from the pain, the other from the frustration. If this much pain was from false labor, then the real thing was going to be horrible.
Meanwhile…
Ratchet was amazed at how quickly yet smoothly Spyro was able to fly. Ratchet looked over Spyro's head and saw a city. All of the buildings were made out of a highly reflective glass, causing the sun to glance off the sides of the buildings. The glare caused Spyro to squint, and Ratchet to pull out a visor. The city would've been much more majestic if the flames weren't present. People yelling, cragmites roaring, laser blasts echoing across the city, the sounds cut Ratchet down to his heart.
Spyro flew down low and landed, Ratchet dismounting him shortly after. Ratchet saw Lombaxes firing on the cragmite hoards with multiple types of weaponry, as well as dragons backing them up with whatever element they could. A few dragons were attacking the cragmites bravely with bites and swipes of their claws. They were covered in impressive sheets of armor, blocking the worst of the cragmite attacks.
A pack of Cragpoles spotted them and their three eyes narrowed as their jaws opened up to growl menacingly at the duo. Ratchet remembered these fiends all too well, their three legs, two eyes small and one eye big, set off to the side of its unnaturally big head of which three antennae grew in a line. Before Ratchet could fire his pistol, Spyro charged shortly after covering himself in fire, and knocked nearly all the cragpoles away with a comet dash. The few remaining were blasted away by Ratchet's marksmanship. Spyro thanked Ratchet with a nod of his head, and fired an icicle spear right behind Ratchet's head. The spear punched its way through a cragmite hunter's torso and kept going, knocking away a few more cragpoles behind it. The cragmite hunter fell on the ground dead, and half a dozen cragpoles burst from its rapidly decaying body. Ratchet threw his wrench in a comet strike, killing all the cragpoles.
Spyro turned and saw a dozen cragmite hunters surround them, followed by 18 cragmite warriors. Ratchet could hear the arm cannons of the hunters being loaded and the shoulder cannons of the warriors being charged. The bug-like legs and unnaturally long arms that ended in a single claw of the dark purple enemies started bracing themselves for the attack, their out-of-place teeth clicking together in excitement.
"Ratchet" Spryo said as he started hovering about six feet in the air.
"Get under me." Ratchet looked at the purple dragon oddly for a moment, but quickly did so. As Spyro hovered in the air, the surrounding flames converged on him at once. Balls of fire began raining from the sky striking anything that was in their path, luckily concentrated around Spyro and not on him, most of the damage being done to the cragmites. After the last of the cragpoles burst from the body of its dead parent, the flames that had enveloped Spyro blasted out in a large shockwave, nearly 30 feet in every direction. The Cragpoles' weak armor did nothing to protect them, and when Ratchet looked, he saw purple puddles, smoking. The remaining Cragmites fled, acknowledging that the guardian of this planet had arrived.
Spyro slowly hovered onto the ground, flames still covering his body. Ratchet knew he had been burned in a few places but didn't mind; he was just glad that the cragmites had received the worst amount of damage.
"What was that?" Ratchet asked the dragon as the nanites in his body started repairing the damage done.
"That, was a fire fury." Spyro explained.
"The angrier I am, the more of that anger I can channel into a single elemental attack, creating a fury."
Ratchet walked beside Spyro as they trekked to what seemed the heart of the city. In the center there were four skyscrapers, and the one facing north was taller than the rest. Ratchet saw an elevator coming down to greet them.
"Spyro, I've told you countless times, while your furies are excellent at defeating the cragmites, the collateral damage is just too great." Said an elderly Lombax after exiting the elevator. He was dressed in a fine tuxedo, dotted with an assortment of medals on both shoulders.
"I know, but there were too many surrounding us, Ratchet and I would've been destroyed if I hadn't."
"Who is this Ratchet?" the Lombax asked, putting on a pair of glasses. He looked at Spryo and then Ratchet. The Lombax's jaw slowly fell open in astonishment.
"Could it be? Could you be Kaden's son?" The Lombax asked.
"I am Kaden's son." Ratchet said, pulling out the stopwatch that Alister had given him. He opened it, showing Alister and Kaden together.
The elder Lombax looked at Ratchet for a few moments.
"Come, we have much to discuss, and your remaining family will be happy to see you safe and sound." Ratchet followed along, too stunned to speak. But an old enemy, one from Ratchet's past, saw this from his cloaked ship that hovered above the city, and his entire body shook with rage, his oversized crown falling over his eyes during his tantrum.