As I said previously, here is my latest chapter, hope you all are enjoying it so far!
Ch5: Another Strange Encounter
Spyro, Cynder, and Sparx had a wonderful time in the swamp, but unfortunately the time came for them to return to Warfang. They bid Flash, Nina and the entire village farewell, and after promising they would see each other again soon, the three of them took flight once again. Heading for Warfang, Spyro took the time to confide in Cynder.
"So, do you feel better now? Less anxious?" He asked her with a grin, one that Cynder was all too happy to return.
"Definitely," Cynder said while beaming, a complete change from her nervousness earlier. Meeting Spyro's adopted parents and receiving their blessings made her feel better than she ever had in her entire life.
"No better family could have found and raised you, that's for sure, and both your mom and dad are really nice, it's no wonder you turned out so sweet," she teased him giggling, making the purple dragon's face go red.
"Haha, keep it up Cynd and he'll go from purple to red all over," Sparx jested, causing him to be shaken off an irritated Spyro's head.
The yellow dragonfly resumed flying again on his own before giving his brother a glare while Cynder giggled in amusement. She thought to herself how Sparx was a complete contrast to both his parents, for his dad was wise and patient and his mom kind and compassionate. Those were traits that instead, described their adopted son Spyro in many regards. She wouldn't voice it aloud, but she would never understand how such a mischievous wisecracking troublemaker like Sparx was their biological son.
'Talk about ironic,' she thought to herself before changing the topic.
"So, what's next on our list when we get back?" Cynder asked the brothers, getting their attention.
Spyro answered, "Terrador said he's meeting with King Arius today about solidifying our alliance with Elorin, he said he'd discuss it in further detail when we get back."
"Think we might have to make a trip there?" Cynder asked with silent anticipation.
"Don't know, but it's a possibility," Spyro replied with a shrug.
"Well if it is, then count me out!" Sparx shouted out while buzzing alongside them, "honestly if I never make another trip through another portal to an alien world again, it will be too soon!"
"Come on Sparx, you have to admit it was a grand adventure," Spyro reasoned.
"Excuse me, but we already have plenty of adventures here on our own world to share someday, and even those have had close calls in which we could have been killed!" Sparx argued back, "besides, anything is better than listening to that orange rat Daxter going on a rant."
Spyro and Cynder silently agreed, if they did end up going back to Elorin, perhaps leaving Sparx behind was a good idea. If anything, it would save another exhausting argument between the two small loudmouths. Suddenly, another voice ahead of them called out.
"Spyro! Cynder!"
The young dragons and dragonfly looked off to their left, and to their own surprise saw Vacu, the earth acolyte flying at top speed toward them. He slowed up on approach as the dragon group met together in the air above the forest outside the Shattered Vale.
"I'm so glad I found you!" Vacu exclaimed.
"Vacu, what is it?" Spyro asked, noting his exhaustion from apparently flying non-stop to find them.
"You guys need to come back to Warfang with me immediately, Ignitus has a new mission for you!" Vacu said, shocking the hero trio.
"He does?!" Spyro exclaimed.
"What is it?" Cynder asked the million-dollar question, which was answered in a way that seemed almost prophetic regarding their previous discussion.
Vacu finally said, "Let's just say, it's time for you two to go back to Elorin."
Setting: Elorin-Outside the Brink
Jak continued flying the Freedom Cat with Daxter and Calidan as passengers. The original Elorin hero had heard tales of the mysterious Brink mountain range before, even in the old days when he and his old friends used to live in Sandover Village in the distant past. He recalled what Samos had first told him about it, the story said the Brink was the intersecting point from when the precursors who built their world from its core met in the middle bringing both ends together. Other than that, he couldn't recall anything else, but maybe investigating this meteor strike would provide a multitude of answers.
The Freedom Cat flew through a series of clouds, before emerging out the other side to its apparent destination, the sight Jak was seeing made him say, "there it is."
Calidan looked ahead and could only gape in astonishment at the sight of the eclipsing Brink mountains in front of them. He remembered learning that this range was also recognized as the tallest mountains on the planet. Seeing them in person now for the first time eliminated any doubt from his mind. Just the first two he could see were almost double as high as the wasteland volcano peak.
"Incredible," he said to himself before telling Jak, "even with the scanners, finding one meteor around here will be tricky."
"I agree, the best way to start is to narrow it down to the area where it was detected on impact, do you have a direction?"
Cal looked to his gauntlet to analyze the trajectory data again, and saw it was directing him a little off to the northwest. Noting the coordinates he told Jak, "15 degrees off port side."
Jak adjusted the wheel and they headed for an area between two mountain peaks. As they flew they could see the encompassing stretch of forest trees below them that sat along the foot of the range. It was quite a way down, enough to make Daxter shut his eyes, even though they were barely high enough to reach the summit of the Brink mountains around them. Calidan kept watching his gauntlet as they flew around the closest mountain toward the next one behind it. The signal from the data he received back at HQ was growing stronger, so Calidan looked ahead as the mist from the range slowly faded away, and saw something…
"There!" he pointed ahead, causing Jak and Daxter to look as well. Apparently the signal was no longer needed, because just ahead they could see a thin stack of smoke billowing away from a crash site near the side of the mountain. Jak wordlessly piloted the Freedom Cat down, heading for the impact zone.
Daxter could only think, 'I've got a bad feeling about this...and my danger instincts are usually right.' Jak found a clear landing zone near the impact trail and slowly set the aircraft down. Its pilot and passengers jumped out to begin their scout, and observed the whole impact zone from the edge of its impact ravine all the way to the end where the space rock now lay. At first glance, they were concerned about what they saw.
"Ok, I admit I'm a novice in meteorite science and all, but that doesn't look like a normal space rock," Calidan said upon observation. Jak silently agreed, it didn't have the appearance of a broken-up piece of space debris. There were no ragged edges, instead it was smooth and streamlined, like it had been crafted by hand, or many hands considering the space object's size was almost twice that of the Freedom Cat.
"This is no meteor...this is something else," said Jak, "in fact, I'd say it looks more like a pod of some kind."
"You're saying we have extraterrestrial visitors now?" Calidan asked.
"Wouldn't be the first time, right?" said Jak.
"Any chance these could be friendly ones for a change?" Daxter asked the two humans. When he received no response, he simply added, "yeah I didn't think so."
"Just don't want to give false hopes Dax, but let's give it a full look before jumping to conclusions," said Jak before he approached the pod with Calidan following him. Jak slowly put a hand to the pod, and surprisingly felt that it was quite cool, even though it no doubt burned up in the atmosphere prior to crashing down from space. Whatever material this thing was made from was unlike anything he had ever come across. Something else stood out to him, etched along the body of the pod were strange symbols. What they were, he had no idea, but they did remind him of something else.
"Look at these markings, do they remind you of anything?" he asked Cal.
He looked at them for a moment before answering, "yeah, they almost resemble the symbols etched into the Alliance Arch!"
"...and other precursor artifacts we've seen," Jak concluded.
"Oh terrific," Daxter droned, "you mean to tell me we've come across more precursor junk? If that's the case, I say we fly outta here on the double!"
Jak replied, "again, let's not jump to conclusions, we're not sure what we have here, but at least we now have something to start with. Let's look over this whole thing and see if anything else stands out."
He then made his way along the left side while Cal made his way along the right, feeling the whole pod over for any more clues. Cal stopped near the open section of the pod, hoping to see anything inside, unfortunately it was too high to tell if anything was still inside it. He contemplated using his Eagle pack to give him a lift up, but as he lowered his gaze, he noticed something different catching his attention. It was another symbol etched into the side of the pod, half covered with soot. Brushing it clean with his hand, he saw what resembled a metallic human face looking right at him, lasered into the pod body with a blue tint.
"Hey guys, I found something!" Calidan called out to Jak and Daxter.
"What is it?" Jak asked aloud from the other side.
"Another strange symbol etched into the body, but different from the others," he explained.
"Let me guess, it looks like a metal face?" Jak replied, stunning Cal momentarily.
"I guess you found one too?" Cal asked.
"Yup, and I'm looking right at it," Jak said from the left side, looking at the same symbol.
"More like it's looking at us, at least that's what I'm thinking," Daxter added, feeling slightly creeped out by the face.
...SHHOOOMMMMM...
The strange noise caused them to turn their heads to the skies, where it was coming from, and were shocked to see descending from the planet skies a red fireball heading for their area of the Brink! Its trajectory was slightly different, and ended up making impact several miles south of the first crater, shaking them off their feet.
...BOOOMMM!...
Jak, Daxter, and Calidan steadied themselves as the impact caused a slight tremor, which ended nearly as soon as it began. As they righted themselves, they could only look ahead to where the second meteor had impacted in disbelief. Experience told Calidan that it was no coincidence of the same phenomenon happening twice in one day.
"Maybe I should have stayed in the wasteland," he muttered to himself.
All three of them immediately began running over to the fresh crash site leaving the original pod and their Freedom Cat behind. Unbeknownst to them, a pair of blue colored lights shaped like eyes watched them leave from a distance under the coverage of the surrounding forest. It had just vacated the pod to carry out its primary scouting mission until it detected the human aircraft arriving and hid itself. Seeing another pod landing near its own was enough to concern it, knowing it couldn't be from one of his faction. It grew more concerned watching the native humans run towards it. The lights then vanished as the strange being disappeared into the trees.
After about a 15 minute run, the Alliance investigators made their way to the new impact zone. The sight of burned trees and upturned soil was a dead giveaway, and they made their way around a burnt tree to see what was on the other side. It was another pod, similar size and shape to the last one, and it was still smoking from its ride through the atmosphere. The two human soldiers holstered their blaster rifles, bringing them to the front.
Jak turned to say, "let's approach slowly, and don't engage unless I say so." Calidan nodded back while Daxter gulped and they slowly scooted toward the pod. Though they didn't have to wait long until something else happened.
...SSSSHHHH...
They were immediately halted by the emitting sound from the pod as it decompressed itself before unlatching its door. From below, they saw the pod open up a hole in the same manner as the other one. Jak waited a few minutes for something to happen, only nothing did, and slowly continued trekking toward it. He observed the pod's exterior and saw more of the precursor-like symbols from the first one, as well as something new. It was another symbol, but different from the metal face on the first pod. Instead of blue, it was tinted red, and was shaped like some sort of helmet, with four jagged points and diamond shaped eyes.
A metallic creaking noise filled the air, jolting the two soldiers and ottsel to attention. They pointed their rifles at the pod, only to see what appeared to be a giant metal arm reach out of it, followed by a body, one that dwarfed all of them by a considerable degree. The body stood tall as the smoke cleared away and they could see it for what it was, a giant robot with a black, purple, and silver color scheme. The robot pulled itself out of the pod onto the side opposite from them, prompting Jak to whisper, "get back to cover...now!"
Calidan complied as he slowly made his way back behind the tree, with Jak following along with a shaking Daxter...SNAP
Unfortunately, the sound of him stepping on a branch was enough to halt him, and caused the robot to turn his way, staring at him with red piercing eyes. Jak was frozen as the robot stared him down, both parties were silent for what seemed like an eternity, until Daxter broke the ice, "uh...hello there! Welcome to our world...we hope you come in peace?" he finished with a wave and cheesy grin.
The robot's response to Daxter's statement was rudimentary, as it shifted its right arm into a makeshift cannon and pointed it at the native group, charging up.
Jak was still frozen in shock as Daxter's face fell before muttering, "guess not."
Calidan shouted, "RUN!"
Jak finally jumped as the robot fired the first shot, blowing away a big portion of dirt right where the human once stood. Jak picked himself before prompting Calidan, "come on! Back to the Cat!"
The humans made a run for it with the robot in pursuit on foot through the trees. Fortunately, the dense foliage made it difficult for the giant robot to make headway on them, unfortunately whenever any tree got in its way, it simply broke through it with sheer force. Debris from the last tree it busted through nearly landed on top of the trio as they continued their retreat. The run uphill was feeling more like a triathlon as they sensed the hostile alien robot advance on them. Another cannon shot was fired, blowing them off their feet. They slowly pulled themselves back up as the dust settled around them. Realizing outrunning it wasn't an option, Jak ordered retaliation.
"Outrunning this thing isn't an option, we've got to fight it!"
"ARE YOU CRAZY?!" Daxter shouted.
"I actually agree with Daxter on this one, do we even have anything that can hurt that thing?!" Calidan exclaimed.
"Won't know until we try," Jak said before equipping his peacemaker mod and standing up. The smoke kicked up from the robot's previous shot slowly ebbed away, allowing Jak and the robot to stare each other down. The robot soon noticed a blue glow coming from Jak's gun, and appeared to give a gesture of surprise. Seeing his opening, Jak immediately brought up the charged peacemaker shot and fired. The robot put up its left hand to block, but to no avail as the peacemaker shot hit it and enveloped its whole body with electrical discharge. The overload made it roar out in pain as it fell to its knees.
Noting the effect, Daxter bragged to it, "HA! Yeah! Take that metalface! That's what you get for greeting with a gun! We'll just give it right back, Whoo!"
Jak and Cal watched with satisfaction that their firearms were effective on it, unfortunately it didn't last. Their grins turned to horror as the discharge faded away, and the robot's red eyes looked up to glare at them with a death ridden intent. A growl rumbled from it as it picked itself up.
"Haha...about that metalface comment..." Daxter muttered out. The sound of another equipping gun caused him to turn around to Calidan, who was pointing his new Arc Wielder toward it.
"My turn," he said before firing the blue electric arc at the robot, enveloping it and making it roar in even more pain. Jak equipped his own Arc Wielder soon after, and fired at the robot himself, causing Cal to cut off his own shot.
"I'll take it from here, get to the Cat!" Jak told Cal.
Cal replied, "but..."
"I'm the Commander here! Now get to the Cat and get it prepped, I'll be right behind you!" Jak ordered.
Cal's face scrunched up, as his first instinct was to ignore him and help him out anyway. But then he realized Jak was speaking to him not as a friend right now, but as his commanding officer. Succumbing to his training, Calidan turned away with a grunt and made a run for the Cat while Jak kept the robot subdued.
The Alliance officer eventually reached the original crash site where the Freedom Cat lay. Jumping into the pilot's seat, he analyzed the controls and initiated the power up sequence. The engines hummed to life as he looked back where he had come from, scoping out for any sign for the duo.
He then pressed another button on the dashboard out of instinct, which immediately started recording video from a front mounted camera. Just then, he saw Jak running at top speed out of the trees which made him breathe a sigh of relief. The human commander had ceased its fire on the alien robot a minute ago and took the chance to retreat while it was still paralyzed from the discharge.
Jak was halfway to the Cat now when another rumble was heard behind him. The human commander kept running to the Cat, all the while behind him the red-eyed alien robot burst out of the trees and set its sight on the retreating human ahead of him. A busted tree from its emersion flew above Jak and landed in front of him, halting his advance. Knowing escape was futile, the robot sneered as it brought up his cannon arm once again.
"Jak LOOK OUT!" Calidan pointed out as Jak turned around to see him in the robot's target sight once again, this time with no cover. He and Daxter were frozen, awaiting the impending shot…
...SHOM!...
Suddenly, the red-eyed robot was hit by a different shot in the torso from its left, losing its chance. It fell to the ground as the Alliance trio turned in the direction the shot came from. To their continued surprise, another giant alien robot came running out of the forest, this one with a yellow color scheme and blue colored eyes, and heading straight for the red-eyed robot with a hard tackle. The native group watched in disbelief at the sight of two giant alien robots wrestling with each other. The silver one soon broke away from the yellow one as it engaged in battle with a right-hand strike which the yellow one blocked before delivering a right punch which made contact, and the silver retaliated with a knee strike which knocked the yellow one down. The close combat between the two giants continued for a few minutes with the Alliance trio as gawking spectators, until the yellow robot found itself thrown to the ground several yards in front of them. The silver robot deployed a new weapon from its left arm, a spiked ball and chain which it began spinning around as it slowly trolled toward him.
Another surprise occurred for the native group, as they heard the silver robot growl out in words, "...Pathetic Autobot…" it swung its ball and chain around to pummel the yellow robot from the left side, only for the yellow one to jump right over it, and then roll under the next swing toward its silver opponent, and deliver a high knee kick. The silver one was knocked off its feet, until the yellow one picked him up by his legs and spun him around twice before throwing it deep into the forest it had emerged from.
Turning around to face the humans, the yellow robot let out a series of beeping sounds to them, followed by pointing its hand to the sky. At first, they were confused by this, until Jak realized…
"I think it's telling us to leave," he said.
"Well, let's not let the kind gesture go to waste, let's book!" Daxter agreed. Jak turned and ran around the fallen tree toward the Freedom Cat with Calidan in the pilot seat, who looked at the yellow robot with intrigue. He had never seen such a being before, it made the KG deathbots look like toy soldiers, except unlike its silver counterpart, this yellow robot was fighting to defend them, not attack them. Something new was occurring here, something big.
Jak climbed into the passenger seat and said, "let's fly rogue!"
For once, Cal didn't argue and took off, the Freedom Cat lifting into the air and flying away on its entrance vector. The yellow bot watched them leave from the ground, with the robot growing smaller in their sight as they left the impact zone behind. All of them wondered the same thing which Daxter voiced out…
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?!"
The yellow bot watched the natives leave in their aircraft, before turning its attention back to its opponent. He had just re-emerged from the trees from where he was thrown and glared at his Autobot adversary. He growled before threatening him, "you'll pay for that little bug."
The silver one rushed him as the yellow one stood his ground, and their match continued with a flying tackle. Silver bot returned the favor to Yellow bot by throwing him away in a rolling maneuver. Yellow bot ended up hitting a tree, breaking it off its base on impact, and struggled to right himself. Silver bot re-engaged his ball and chain, and approached his opponent, slowly picking up speed as he made a swing at him. Yellow bot ducked under it again with a roll before uprighting himself with his own cannon pointing at Silver bot before firing. Silver bot was blown off his feet again, landing on his backside, groaning from the impact. Yellow bot slowly approached him as activated another cannon on his opposite arm, ready to fire. Silver bot didn't give him the chance, and from his low position swung his ball and chain around again, finally making a hit this time on Yellow bot's feet. Yellow bot fell to the ground only to feel a heavy hit impact him on the back, stunning him. The hit was caused by a retaliatory overloop swing from Silver bot's ball and chain, who now stood over his opponent swinging his ball and chain with a sneer.
"Hmph...I wonder if Bumblebee bleeds honey," Silver bot taunted.
That insult figuratively broke the camel's back for Yellow bot, and before Silver bot could make another swing, he pulled a breakdancing move which knocked him off his feet in retaliation. He then picked up his red-eyed opponent, and swung him around with even greater force than before, releasing him toward the mountainside. Silver bot ended up in a crater embedded in the rock from the impact, before being fired upon by a series of cannon shots from his opponent, further damaging him to the point where he ended up in temporary stasis.
Seeing that he had knocked out his opponent, Yellow bot, or Bumblebee as he was now identified, decided it was best to carry out his primary mission, especially now that it was confirmed the Decepticons had arrived. With a shifting noise, he transformed into a yellow vehicular form with hovering capabilities, and accelerated away in the direction the humans had escaped, leaving the crash site and his beaten adversary behind. While driving, Bumblebee sent out a signal to space, one he hoped his Autobot brothers would respond to quickly.
About five minutes later, the red light from Silver bot's eyes reignited again, ending his temporary stasis. Pulling himself out of the crater with a groan, he looked around to see in his fury and humiliation that the Autobot was gone. Deciding that he had learned more than enough, he put a metal finger to his helm to signal his master.
"Barricade to Lord Megatron, come in sir."
"Barricade...what do you have to report?" the voice of his dark lord echoed through his comm.
"My Lord, I've arrived on the planet and made contact, and there's more."
"What is it?"
"They're here sir...the Autobots are here...the war has begun again."
First contact, and the first Autobot vs Decepticon fight on Elorin soil, I aim to improve my battle scene writing as this story progresses...