Spyro: Dawn of Light, 3-36

SPYRO: DAWN OF LIGHT

Part 3



CHAPTER 36




It didn't take much to get in.  With a heavy sigh at what she was about to do, Tephra spread her wings, taking herself and the Executioner into the underground complex in a sphere of earth power pushing the ground apart and then reforming it behind them.  Not a trace was left of their entrance, leaving them in a closed lab room.  Beakers of all sorts were scattered across tables, and crates were shoved haphazardly everywhere.  "You go hide by the main lab down the hall to the right," she grunted.  Heading on without him she barged into the hallway, finding no opposition.  No one knew she was here yet.  "Cheh...no fun," she hissed, slinking into the adjacent lab.  Right off the bat she found an open notebook.  "Let's see here...captured kids...numbers assigned...integration to project...yeah, I'm done here."  Swiping it and storing it she turned to leave, then stopped when she saw several more.  As much as she wanted to not care and get this over with, something about all this was nagging at her.  Why were they so hellbent on making more Spyros?  Tossing a book open roughly she flicked through the pages.  "Meh, I'll just take the whole damn stack."  Encasing them in crystal she stowed the crystal packet and moved to the next lab, not wanting to spend any more time dwelling on this.  There she found several personal journals.  "Scalepox vaccine..." one title caught her eye.  She flipped it open, finding a myriad of detailed drawings of chemical compounds and interactions.  "After the Superpox outbreak, we've been scrambling to create an effective vaccination that should offer permanent resistance to the virus.  Nothing yet, but perhaps Project PD will offer some insight we can use."

Project PD?  Was that what she was after?

"If we can find the source of a purple dragon's power, we should therefore be able to delve further into these deadly outbreaks and find a way to stave them off for good."

She growled and flung the book aside, uncaring of the claw marks her paws left.  Terrible memories flashed through her head.  Cries for help echoing through uncaring streets.  Picking up the next book, she leafed through it quickly.  

"Yadeyada, blah blah blah, science this science that...ew.  That's disgusting, didn't need to see that at all."  Near the end she noticed a rough sketch of Spyro in his youth.  "Subject has been taken into Guardian custody.  We will wait to see how his powers develop."

She was about to fling that book aside too, then growled and stored it, fetching the other one she'd thrown too.  "Those damn Guardians..." she snarled, memories of the scalepox again returning to her.  "Traitors every damn one of them..."  She couldn't stand this room any more, not with those awful memories flooding her mind.  Running out into the hallway she glanced at a directional sign.  "So the prisons are down that way.  Lovely.  Time to go spying I guess."

Stepping sideways she pressed the wall around herself again, hiding in the underground stone.  They were quite deep under the surface here, it made her wonder briefly how they'd carved this place out.  The stone felt damaged and empty, as if it had been strained for years upon years.  These tunnels had been here for a long time apparently, now that she stopped to think about it.  How long had this place been operating and watching everything?  Why hadn't they come to the rescue in place of the Guardians?  Snarling and shaking her head to try to clear her thoughts, she "floated" through the rock, following the stress of the tunnel's walls.  Every once in a while she'd poke her head through into the hallway proper to gauge her surroundings, then she'd duck back into the stone and keep moving.  Fairly soon she encountered the prison halls, as well as some lengthy and complex stairwells and passages.  Curious about this switch-up in design, she followed one at random, winding her way around up and down and finally ending at a dark laboratory.  With no one around, she walked in, feeling a very eerie atmosphere, very dark and oppressive somehow.  It was a sensation she hadn't felt in a very long time and it sent chills down her spine.  The crystals on her shoulders glowed with an increasing light as she ventured into the inky darkness, until she encountered an examination table big enough for a huge earth dragon like herself.  Not too far from it was a table spread with all sorts of charts and scrolls and leather-bound notebooks and quills and measuring devices and whatever else she didn't care enough about to notice.  Looking the scrolls over quickly, she found the same numbers the first few notebooks had assigned to her targets.  Beneath all that was a set of personal notes.

"Integration of these normals will not be necessary, there is no deviation from the norm in terms of body mass to structure ratio.  Elemental power will be gauged next for inter-compatibility between elemental wavelength expectations.  We may have to euthanize the other prisoners, they are becoming too much of a burden.  The serums are not working at all, and some accidental successes have been made but fail to be replicated.  Purple Dragon integration relies instead on these children."

Euthanize?  The word made her blood boil.  Up until now she hadn't cared about innocents being arrested, but this was exactly the kind of treachery she was working to destroy and undo!  This right here was the very world she longed to do away with and start all over!  "That's it, this place burns."  Nabbing the scroll roughly and storing it with the others she darted out and nonchalantly crashed through the walls, forcing her way down to the main prison access halls.  Deep, reverberating sirens started going off around her, probably air-charged crystals set into a bellows system with whistle-chiseled bells, from the metallic sound of it.  Doubling back to the labs, she ducked into one of the bigger rooms, finding it full of samples from all sorts of dragons.  Spilling several flasks of powder she loosed a powerful Earth Shot, the whole room bursting into colorful flames.  She then screamed at the ceiling, blasting a hole to the surface, conveniently passing through several other labs on the way up.  The explosive down-draft nearly pushed her out of the room.  With a mad cackle she coughed up a Tectonic Bomb, a powerful pressure wave shooting down the halls and ballooning the immediate area into a cavern of dust and rubble.  Screams of panic and yells of soldiers echoed everywhere through the roaring fire.  Floating through the rock again she headed to the prisons, grinning with glee as she poked her head out and caught Cynder's scent just ahead, cheetahs rushing her back to the cell.  "Lucky me," she grinned toothily, "this makes things so much easier."



---------------



"Been a while, Hunter."

"Yes, Dagon."

Bianca shifted nervously.  The two cats were very stiff in their greeting tones.  Dagon nodded over his shoulder as he stepped aside to let them into the heavy vaulted base doorway.  "What brings you here?  New recruit it looks like.  You two joining us then?"

The cheetah had to breathe slowly to fight back his anger at his old friend.  "Considering.  Your Department has run us mercenaries out of a profession after all.  But you know me, I require more in-depth information before making such a decision."

As she stepped over the threshold and onto the cold stone floor of the main office, Bianca felt a presence flicker under her shadow and dart across the hallway, deeper in.  Spyro was on the move.  Looking around, she noticed there seemed to be no defensive detection system against him.  They're still in their infancy it seems if they can't craft simple elemental detectors...unless their modified weapons are too unstable and interfere with such a measure... she thought to herself.  Hunter's thoughts weren't too far off that track either.

"Fairly lax security here," he remarked as they followed the tiger through the hallway.

"Everyone is burdened with extra work, you're lucky to have caught me in a little free time as it is.  You'd probably have gotten stuck with Damascyn, and she's a real stuck-up one, she is.  Would've turned you away before you opened your mouth."

"What is this 'Department' about anyway?" Bianca asked.

"Ah, my apologies, miss.  If you're looking to join...there's no better group than the Department of Containment.  I can't say I represent the group myself but we are committed to preserving peace and justice where establishments have fallen to corruption and self-service."

"And what all do you do exactly?"

While they were talking, Spyro was busily rushing along the shadows.  Thankfully the lighting was cheap; firestones set at regular intervals gave enough illumination to navigate by, but the stone bricks laid were hurriedly placed it seemed, and the grout between them was filled in from the center of the hall, so the gaps at the joint of wall and floor were pronounced enough to give a steady dark shadow between themselves, perfect for Spyro, or even Nightshade if the dragon had need.  Most of the doors didn't even reach the floor either, set into mass-produced hinges on the walls and standing a good inch or two off the bricks.  The whole building appeared to have been tossed together rapidly, and was only recently and slowly being spiffed up now that the Department was gaining funds and notoriety.  From room to room the purple dragon sped along, finding all sorts of hiding spots behind discarded supply crates, forgotten furniture cast aside...most of it looked stolen or picked up for repair and later Department usage.  But, they offered him perfect materialization points to look around the room quickly.  Out here it was all personal offices or bunks, nothing of significant interest.  This building was likely the main office for dealing with the public.  Parchment pieces and scrolls and books and maps and quills, all kinds of keeper stuff was scattered across desks.  Here and there Spyro would take a quick glance at them, but all he found were records of disturbances, chronicles of shipments, names and dates of offenders being apprehended, all that office stuff that kept the place going as a business.  The most he found of value was a paper on the statues and slave trade victims of the Green Rain.  While he was after information, it was probably best to let the Department deal with that aftermath for them at least.  No, the information he was after was more sinister than that.

Finally he located a stairwell, still hearing Hunter's and Dagon's voices murmuring through the halls.  Slinking down the stairs, still remaining in his shadow phase, he gave a quick check along the next floor down.  No, these were definitely personal bunks.  Every room had a bed and a station for personal care, as well as racks for armor and weapons.  Some rooms were occupied and the doors locked.  Spyro didn't bother checking out more than a few open rooms before doubling back to the stairs and descending another flight.  This one was much longer, and the air grew colder and wetter.  Come to think of it, his first trek into Department chambers was down a long flight of stairs into the underground like this.  Any labs he'd encounter would likely be much further down.  Rhythmic drum beats and corresponding yells told Spyro all he needed to know of this third floor.  Training chambers.  

Down the stairs wound until they abruptly ended, the halls looking very tidy and smooth this time.  The door to the main hallway was all Spyro needed to see to continue, an eight-piece logo with each piece being a different color.  It was the same logo he'd seen before.  Slipping through, he was greeted with bright pale lights, and everyone who passed through the halls was wearing a white or pale-colored robe.  Many had goggles with crystal lenses, and quite a few were carrying scrolls and quills, or thick books stacked on wooden carts.  A little daunted by this task ahead, Spyro hesitated, wondering which way to go.  

"Hey, what's going on across the way?" someone asked, exiting a nearby room.  

"Tephra's ransacking our branch department there, I guess she wants to clean out those brats now that they're confined and helpless."

"Shouldn't we be on alert too?"

"Eh, she's no threat to us here.  Get back to work."

Paranoid, or sharp, Spyro thought to himself as the curious scientist slowly went back into his chamber.  The passage to the right seemed less occupied, so he headed down that way first, ducking into each room.  What he found was a little disconcerting.  A lot of these labs were being repurposed as triages, surgeons dealing with emergency patients.  Whether they were convicts, Department soldiers, or casualties of their efforts from the general populace, Spyro had not the time to find out.  Further on, he found several labs conducting observations and tests on Convexity Poisoned creatures, small varieties but all translucent and glowing, and many had Gems in them.  One lab had several observers around a burly dragon suspended in a pool, but for what, Spyro again could not tell.  Another stairwell door led further down, but Spyro wasn't fully convinced just yet.  Surely these labs were connected directly to the ones Nightshade had taken him and Cynder to?

Doubling back, he took the opposite wing.  This time though, after several labs roughly the same as the ones he'd already checked, he came across a room full of small cells, and held within were young dragons about his age or older, of varying elemental types and body builds.  They were all fast asleep, in poor shape, and bound by chains and elemental collars.  Many of them looked pained and upset.  The purple dragon froze in this room, his heart pounding with grief.  Why were these kids here?  Damn, if only he had that fancy picture-taking device Moneybags used...

Forcing himself to move on, but unable to resist a forlorn backwards glance, he melted into shadow and pressed on.  A much larger stairwell greeted him, along with a familiar hallway.  So this was where Nightshade had brought them.  Heading down the corridors, he came across that one room with the logo on it from before, and couldn't resist peeking in.  That mutated eel was gone, as were the Apes, but Spyro froze in sheer horror as his eyes adjusted to the dim light and revealed the far end of the room.

A Dragon.

Four globular green eyes, set into a fractured skull held together by purple crystal beneath translucent crystalline skin.
Claws like sickles, and tail spines all over the top and sides of the tail almost like a pine tree's branches.  
Huge scythe blades for wing fingers instead of membranes for flight.
A belly full of Outer Realm gems, all on fire somehow without charring.  

It was like something out of a nightmare, but there as no mistake, this was a Dragon that had been mutated by the Eternal Night's power.  Suspended in a crystal tank full of some strange fluid, the creature slowly floated around as if dead, but occasionally it would snap awake and viciously paw at the fluid and snap its deformed jaws, then give up and resume floating.  

Tearing his eyes away from the horrible sight, he kept going, coming across another stairwell leading further down.  With a nervous gulp, he descended, going down quite a distance this time before hitting an exit.  The halls down here weren't quite as nice and clean, nor as brightly lit, and few seemed to be down here.  The whole floor felt dark, in multiple senses.  Slinking along slowly, several labs came up but they were tightly locked behind thick security doors, nothing like the ramshackle wooden doors of the other labs.  Slipping between the minuscule cracks took some effort but he finally wormed his way in.  Nothing but books, ledgers, and scrolls everywhere in an eerily tidy order on one side of the room, and on the other were crystal flasks with glowing liquids or crystals or dust of some kind.  There were also glass cases of bodily pieces - claw clippings or horn shards, shed scales, shavings from crests, all labeled meticulously.  There were also a number of glass flasks of blood kept in an icy corner, again all carefully labeled in fine print.  What caught Spyro's eye though was a single unrolled scroll along an angled table that was clearly labeled "Project: Purple Dragon Research".  Looking around the room carefully, he searched for any possible spying or recording devices of any sort, but found none.  Given the state of the rest of the facility, perhaps they hadn't gotten around to security measures yet.  Chancing luck, he slipped out of his shadow phase, popped two Mana Crystals from his inventory to recharge his energy, then stood up to read the scroll.  It was written in an unknown language for the most part, but it seemed the scientists defaulted to Common for their general logs.  While he couldn't read what he assumed to be the mission statement or synopsis of the project and its goals, he could read the various dated entries.  Most of them were just dates and labels of logs, or specimen collections.  Taking one at random, he looked for the log number amid the ledgers.  

"Today marks the fifth month of strain 502's success in elemental application to weaponry.  Field tests against dragon prisoners will begin next week if stability holds."

Grabbing a few sets of more recent numbers, he located the books and read again.

"Settlement branch has sent us their reports on the arrested whelps.  Finally, something more than common runts.  This project could use some more firepower."  Next to that was a finer red ink script remarking about unprofessional log-keeping.  The next few weren't much more comforting.  "Subject 1290 died of over-exposure to elemental crystal power.  Cause of death: critical heart failure, rapid deterioration of pulse rhythm and ultimately full cardiac arrest.  Subject 1291 is showing signs of increased elemental stamina via artificial exposure using synthetic Spirit Gems, but mental state is deteriorating; subject randomly loses self-recognition when presented with mirrors, and is increasingly repeating commands before acting on them.  Subject 1232 refuses to eat, body is running abnormal temperature after injection of serum 32.4b.  Administered antidote 32.4bxA with marked decrease in temperature after fifteen minutes, but efficacy is decreasing."  Yet another entry.  "Subject 1354 suffered mental breakdown and destroyed the chamber.  Displayed a flash of lightning power in tandem with natural earth.  Increase dosage of priobinac extract stimulant and serum 32.4a in equivalent increments of 0.1."  

Spyro couldn't stand to read more, yet his eyes would not stop roaming the pages.  "Genetic sample obtained from Settlement altercation has been indexed.  Purple dragon 'Spyro' is now in our library, but we require better samples than scraped-off scales."  At that, Spyro reflexively rubbed his side where he'd skidded across the pavement.  How had they nabbed a sample from that fight?  Had all the soldiers been on the lookout for any opportunities to collect from him even amid that battle?  "Samples from ice dragon 'Neves' and electric dragoness 'Plazyma' have been collected as well and are awaiting indexing procedures.  Request submitted for blood samples if any can be procured."

Turning from the ledgers, Spyro moved to some small notebooks bound in leather and strapped shut with cords.  "I look forward to this project.  Today will be my first day here.  While I do not wish to be labeled a racist, the lenience and superiority of dragons has worn me thin.  I'm tired of them.  This project should give us what we need to subjugate them.  It's always us having to fight to protect ourselves, the Dragons never lift a paw even though they have better combat ability than we do.  It was the Dragons that betrayed us in the past too, wasn't the Dark Master a dragon?  A purple dragon?  They can't be trusted if another comes along.  We need to bring them under control.  If we can make purple dragons, we'd hold them for once, rather than them lording over us as they've always done.  We'd have the ultimate fighting force to keep us safe instead of relying on guardians who boast elemental superiority even over other dragons but fail to exercise it except at the bitter end of a conflict."

In the next one, a rather old notebook, he finally found what he truly needed on the first of its greatly yellowed pages.  "The mission of this project is, first and foremost, to engineer an artificial method of producing purple dragon genotypes, following in the footsteps of ancient research into the matter.  We will find 1) the root cause of a purple dragon's unexplained affinity with the powers of creation, 2) a method for harnessing the elemental balance of power found naturally in Convexity, 3) a method of artificially creating elemental manifestations on demand, 4) a suitable application method for imbuing dragons with the PD genotype: injection; elemental exposure; oral supplements; etc.  The purpose is to gather a greater understanding of a dragon's powers, and gain insight on the natural forces surrounding us."  Not too far under it, the author had switched to freehand journaling, adding "What a farce, these mindless mercs just want a subjugated dragon populace and a fighting force that can't be paralleled.  But if I don't comply, they threaten my family.  I am trapped here."  What made Spyro stop and stare at the passage though was the date.  Rubbing his eyes quickly, he squinted at the page.  It was dated quite a ways ahead of his time, by over 30 years in fact, if he was reading the hurried strokes correctly.  Flipping through the journal, he found it to be empty.  Had the author been arrested for opposing the Department?  How long had they been around?  Paws shaking, he carefully examined the other notebooks, selecting one that looked quite aged and battered.  The pages were significantly yellowed just like the old dated one.  The writing was a mess, and clearly not professional, but one line finally caught his eye with something legible.

"Our agents located the deserters.  The drug was successfully administered, by force.  Either she will display multi-elemental manifestations, or her children will."

Multi-elemental manifestation...  His paw was shaking so badly he lost the page as the book folded on itself, the leather returning to its ages-old position.  "No...it couldn't be..."  With a gulp, finding his throat quite dry, he picked up the three notebooks and pocketed them in his personal storage. His heart was racing.  Just how long had this been going on under the radar?!  How many lives had been sacrificed, forever altered and destroyed by this project?!  "Ancient research...into purple dragons..."

There had to be more.  There had to be something here he could use to turn the tables.  He wasn't walking out of this with just notebooks...or should he?  If he did something wrong, he might endanger all the lives held here too.  He couldn't simply free everyone himself and run them out of here on his shadow power; if they'd been experimented on, there was no telling how they would react to his shadow, nor did he have anyone outside waiting for a retrieval.  If he raised a ruckus he might make things worse for those contained in this awful place.  If he simply destroyed the lab, he might set off something unseen and endanger lives with the chemicals or destruction.  What Tephra was doing was a different matter; she was a rogue element and it wouldn't be beyond her to take advantage of his friends being arrested, but this location was their main base and probably held thousands of prisoners all waiting to be experiment targets or weapons testing dummies.  His head spun.  There had to be a way to do this.  He had what he needed...

Or did he?
Research notebooks alone were not enough to condemn such a large establishment.
There had to be something more immediately damning than mere theories being tested...
Tested...
That was it!

Slipping back into shadow he raced out to the hallway, found the main stairwell, and raced up as swiftly as he could.  Given the strength of his power, that wasn't very much time at all, but every moment felt like an hour as he rushed to his objective.  Up on the third level, the training drums were still beating.  This time, he explored the level.  In the center was a massive dojo divided into a myriad of training areas.  Swords, spears, shields, staves, daggers, axes, bows, crossbows, even chain weapons and whips were all available for training.  As if that weren't enough, there was a targeting range along one side stocked with a random assortment of everyday objects from vases to common rocks to plates and cups and even blocks of wood, anything that could be thrown.  They were being trained not only in official combat but street brawling too.  His target wasn't the dojo though, but the offices around it.  Many of the side rooms had elemental weapons and armor sets stored within, and detailed notes on construction, usage, improvements, all that fun stuff.  What Spyro needed though took a bit of searching.  With the dojo active, he was quite nervous.  This had to be quick, in case someone came into whatever room he was in.  Leafing through the reams of paper and scrolls quickly, he found no trace of what he was looking for.  The next room was barren of what he wanted, too.  Near the end of the hallway though, he finally found it.  

"Day 152 of Ice-3 Spear training.  Target: Subject 458, held for 5 counts of murder.  Results: Two hours of usage from the spear before its power was drained.  Subject 458 sustained critical injuries to the neck, left shoulder, left wing, left shin, and a stab through the chest that nearly pierced his heart.  Efficacy of spears against dragons is improving.  The next test will couple Ice-3 Spear with Aero-2 armor for increased jumping range and kiting.  458 is in triage and expected to recover with Health Crystals by tomorrow, reschedule for Fire-3 Sword and Shield exam by midday."

An entire scroll of test results, all along the same lines...and quite a few prisoner deaths too.  Spyro nearly dropped the scroll, absolutely horrified and utterly enraged.  His scales flashed black and a mighty white flame leapt up all around him.  "What the-?!" he yelped, shocked back to reality.  The flames died off instantly but many of the scrolls and other papers had caught and were quickly charring.  The scroll in question was, somehow, still fine as he held it, probably because he was holding it to begin with.  Using his wind breath and a powerful inhalation, he drained the air from around the burning papers, the fires quickly dying off into wisps of smoke.  Looking around in a panic, he spotted an outmoded fire spear in a tall jar.  He hurriedly knocked it over, the spear falling aligned with the mess, then he retreated to the shadows and ran away with his finds.  Back up to the main public offices he fled, feeling like he couldn't move fast enough, then he began to search the rooms more thoroughly.  Not too far away he could hear talking, and once in a while Hunter's voice, but with the echoes he couldn't understand any actual words.  Leafing through more papers, still shaky from his discoveries and that scare of his power leaking out of his control, he slipped a few times and dropped stuff, hurriedly trying to rearrange it before continuing.  In one office by the stairwell, he found something potentially useful.  "Domestic costs total around 150000 monthly.  Grant accepted for 200000 a month for 6 months.  Further aid and donations total 360540 last month.  Monthly expenditure: 150000 as of last month.  Employee salary still withheld."  Staring at the sums, trying to make sense of it, Spyro was nearly caught as someone opened the door.  With a stifled yelp he pocketed the paper and melted into shadow, ducking past a burly lion and escaping into the hallway.  Does this paper mean they're socking away all the extra cash they can?  They're stealing! he thought to himself.  Gotta find Bianca and Hunter and get outta here, this has to be enough!



-------



Cracking stone and the roaring of fire echoed through the tunnels.  "YOU GET BACK HERE WITH HER!!" Tephra shouted, charging through the hall after the fleeing forms of cheetahs.  

Cynder grunted and gave muffled yelps of protest as she was jostled and shaken in transit, the cheetahs not being terribly careful about carrying her.  Faster than she could react, they had jumped and bound her.  Now she was being carted away to who knew where, and Tephra was after her for some reason.  The black dragoness tried to concentrate on her surroundings and a good chance to pop her shadow power still separating the necklace, but she couldn't tell where she was at all, nor was there much place to escape right now from Tephra's wrath.  

"He said the main testing chamber right?" one of her bearers asked quickly.

"Yes!"

Cynder growled as she was swung sideways, the cats rounding a corner sharply.  Behind them Tephra screeched and they all winced as a green blast decimated the hallway, her claws scrabbling against the stone.  Huge doors slammed shut behind her and a bright light filled her vision.  The doors shook with a heavy impact but held tight.

"Finally," a lion snarled angrily.  "We can't let this one get away, no matter what."  Cynder craned her head back to glare at him; he was sneering down at her in return, his white cloak and leather belt stained with blood.  "This one is too valuable.  She is the culmination of years of research.  Unbind her mouth, she's harmless with that collar."  At first she'd been tempted to simply raze the room, but his statement just now caught her attention.  Years of research?  What the hell was he talking about?  Turning to his charts as the guards unbound her, he chuckled to himself.  "This has been a very, very long time coming indeed...He will be most pleased."

"Who do you mean he" she growled once the gag was undone around her muzzle.

"Oh you should know quite well, Cynder, the Terror of the Skies," he jabbed back, shooting her a smirk over his shoulder.  "Those bracelets tell us everything, you couldn't let go of your true nature.  Tell me, young thing, how long do you plan to pretend to be friends with that ragtag group of elemental sources?"  He only got an even angrier glare in return.  "Your silence speaks volumes.  Be glad, your life leads us to the brink of a new discovery, the creation of purple dragons!"  Turning back to her, he presented a large needle.  "I just need your blood."

"Like hell you do."

"Well, I need far more than that of course but...all in good time."

Another heavy thud at the door rang through the room and the doors shuddered heavily this time, but still held firm.

"What are you doing, making more purple dragons?"

"It's none of your concern, you won't be alive by the time it works anyway."  He started slowly stepping closer, swinging the needle around his fingers.  "Begin dictation.  Emergency urgent withdrawal of 17-82 has forced early collection of-"
CRACK
BOOOM
The stone doors shuddered into dust, the timbers flying backwards in a rain of splinters to reveal the Executioner standing there with Tephra behind him, his axe still poised from being wedged in the gap between the doors.  Cynder took the chance of the distraction to snap the collar, melting out of her bonds and then rolling sideways as the doctor lunged at her.  Rushing into the room, the Executioner swung his axe wide and threw himself into a spin, the guards all darting well out of the way as they lacked any means of defending against such intense physical force.  

"DON'T LET HER ESCAPE!!" the lion bellowed, trying to position himself between Cynder and the doorway.  Crouching, she inhaled sharply and then screamed at him, the sound making all the cats cry out and clutch their ears, a red energy blasting the doctor and sending him to his knees, eyes wide with panic.  With a sweep of her wing she knocked him aside with a Wind blast, then crouched again, ready for Tephra and the Executioner.

"C'mon, move your damn ass and let's get outta here," Tephra snarled at her, catching her completely off-guard.

"Wait...what...?"

"We're rescuing you now move!" the Executioner ordered, lunging in and grabbing her before she could react.  She yelped and struggled against him but he was already out the door with her held tight to his chest in one arm, the other holding his axe out defensively.  Tephra led the way, growling as a volley of arrows sailed through the wrecked halls at her and bounced off her hide like stinging sand grains.  

"You get her out," Tephra snarled over her shoulder, then gave a yell and blasted a sloping tunnel through the wall and up towards the surface while she ran down the adjacent hallway.  

"DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!!" came another order behind the archers.  They parted to reveal a group of element-armored soldiers carrying spears and small shields.  Running as fast as his rather short legs would allow, the Executioner charged up the slope.  Cynder could see a dim light ahead, but they were quite far underground and he was already getting exhausted from the travel and fighting before.  Arrows still flew after them, bouncing off his thick armor, but the "dragoon" soldiers were quickly gaining on them.  Cynder pulled herself free of his arm and stood on his shoulder, breathing hard.  Shadow power flew from her mouth and created a thick web across the passage.  

"Can't you run any faster?" she growled.

"No."

Shuddering at what she was about to do next, her body quaked and then with a loud yell she spewed her Poison breath onto the floor, creating a rather lengthy trail of corrosive slime that oozed off the walls and began to run down the tunnel floor.  Fierce yells followed them, followed by brief flashes of light as their elemental spears began to tear through her shadow net.  

"Did you just throw up?" he asked.

"Almost..." she heaved, then spat, trying to rid her mouth of the horrible acid taste.  Breathing shadow again she wove another net, and then another to try to dissuade them if they managed to get through the acid.  Slowing down a bit to pace himself, the Executioner huffed and panted.  "Why is Tephra rescuing me anyway?"

"Spyro asked her to."

Now she was all kinds of confused.  "Since when has she ever- how...why...?"

"Dunno, I tagged along to help.  Almost out."

The light was getting bigger up ahead.  It suddenly flickered and flashed erratically.  Cynder's heart jumped; were they being cut off?  Had someone on the outside traced Tephra's blast and headed out to surround them in here?  "Geez you're slow," Tephra's voice called down to them with a very irritated tone.  She came up to them and gave Cynder a brief glare before spreading her wings.  The walls seemed to bend outward to make room for her, then they ballooned out into a sphere, and all at once there was a gut-wrenching pull as they were yanked upwards with great force.  Before Cynder knew it they were bursting up through the ground in a shower of stone, dirt and drying grass, both her and the Executioner sent rolling.  

"CYNDER!!" Flame shouted some ways away.

"GET GOING YOU STUPID IDIOTS!!" Tephra practically screamed in frustration.  "You!  Get up already!"

The Executioner scrambled to his feet, Cynder still looking around wildly as Tephra spread her great wings and picked him up with her forelegs.  "You okay?" Flame asked as he hovered over Cynder, the black dragoness still blinking in confusion.  

"Y-yeah, I'm fine...just...what the heck?!"

"I know, but we gotta get outta here!"  She followed him without further question, Neves and Caelos already ahead as they followed the earth dragoness to the Temple Island.  Glancing back, Cynder gaped.  How had she missed that pillar of fire?!  A gaping pit in the ground had a tower of ignited gas spewing forth, hundreds of the Department's members trying to get it back under control.  Several white spots caught her attention, growing larger.  

"Uh guys we've got company!" she called out to them.  Caelos spun around and with a heavy breath of his Wind power he slung it at the oncoming soldiers, but they deflected his power with Air-charged shields, continuing to jump after him as if they were leaping off invisible platforms.  An arrow shot past Cynder's head and she shrieked, swerving back and forth to try to avoid further shots.  One soldier's spear and boots glowed brightly and he shot forward at her, his weapon poised to strike her with the inertia.  He missed by a few inches and she swung her tail, catching its hooked edge on his boot and then wrenching his leg with a heavy thrust of her wings to pull herself forward, the cat yelping as he spun and flipped head over heels.  Caelos tried again to catch them in a whirlwind, all but one managing to waive the blast and continue their pursuit.  With another glow, they all lunged after the young dragons and surrounded them.

"Tch..." Neves snarled, then with a loud roar he breathed a thick cloud of ice particles, surrounding himself and his friends with it.  The ice clung to the cats and began to swiftly solidify in the moist ocean air they were sailing above, their jumps more labored as they tried to evade the cloud.  With great sweeps of their spears they buffeted Neves' power with their own Wind blasts.  

"Can't deflect what moves faster than you," Flame bragged, his mouth glowing white.  With a harsh breath he shot one of the soldiers out of the air with his laser-fire, sending the cat spinning out of control and careening to the ocean below.  A spear pierced the cloud, unaffected by the ice, and a sharp gust of wind hit Neves in the head, sending him spinning too.  He managed to right himself quickly, but the lapse in concentration cost him that ice cloud.  Flame lined up another shot and blasted the one that had broken through, knocking off his left boot and leg armor with the blast.

Cynder snarled and her eyes glowed black as tendrils of shadow lunged from her and wrapped around their foes, constricting them like some eldritch sea monster.  She flung them all backwards to try to buy them some time in escaping, they weren't far from the Temple island by now.

"DAMNIT!!" cried a voice behind them; glancing back, Flame watched as the cats let themselves free-fall to rescue their fallen comrades.  With the Temple in sight, their retreat made sense, but Flame couldn't help feeling like there was more to beware.

"Caelos...Feel the air and keep watch, there's no way they'd give up this easily..."

"I don't like this either," Neves growled.

~I sense something moving around extremely fast,~ the wind dragon replied.  ~It's been there since we left.~

Volteer and Terrador bounded out to the balcony as Tephra came in for a landing with the Executioner.  With a huff and swing of her tail she pushed past them into the Dojo.  Hefting his axe, the Executioner followed her, leaving the Guardians to greet their returning students.

"Whew..." Flame sighed in relief.  "I've never been so glad to see this place."

Circling for a landing, the kids laughed in relief.  "How long have we been gone?" Neves asked.  

"At least five days," Terrador replied, he and Volteer stepping back to make room.

A crack of thunder sounded and Caelos suddenly crashed into the balcony floor with a Lightning-powered feline soldier pinning him with the haft of his spear.  Cynder yelped and then found herself spinning with a sickening pain shooting through her head as if someone had clubbed her.  A rush of electricity surrounded the place and Volteer roared, lightning leaping from him and several soldiers screaming as they were zapped out of their mad rushes, hitting the balcony floor and writhing in pain as the electricity made their muscles jump.  Terrador caught Cynder, landed on the balcony, and with a terrible growl he roared at the fallen soldiers and blasted them with a gravity-based Earth Shot, pinning them securely to the stone.  

"Absolutely outrageous! Of all the indispensable nerve! The gall! The the the- the atrocity, the lawlessness, the utter disdain of respect and dignity!" Volteer rambled, nearly faster than his tongue or mouth could move.  For good measure he breathed his lightning again, zapping the cats once more.  "If you hazard even the slightest propagation of a minuscule motion I will-"

"Volteer.  Enough." Terrador snarled.  "Are you alright?"

Caelos slowly stood up and nodded, wincing.  Neves looked closely at his neck.  "Yeah that's gonna bruise reeaalll bad if Rivyera doesn't get to it soon.  Get inside."

"I'm fine..." Cynder whimpered.  In truth she felt really dizzy from that impact.

"No you're not fine."  With that the earth dragon carried her inside, passing by an enraged Ignitus, the fire dragon slowly pacing down the stairs with fire in his eyes.

"Leave it to us now," Cyril said to the kids, a similar rage scrawled over his face.  "You children did quite excellently.  Go rest."

Settling Cynder in her bed, Terrador sighed, turning to the others.  "You will have to lay low for a bit, unless you want to help Plazyma and Shimmer and Sidian in the Forgotten Realms."

"No...I think we're good here," Neves said, shaking his head.  "We've got a lot to report..."

"Then rest for now while we deal with these imbeciles."  With that he left the room, his claws starting to gleam green.  The door rolled shut and Flame let out a long, low whistle.  

"Boy am I glad we've never pissed them off that much..."

"Oh just wait until dad gets back..." Neves said with a wince.  "Let's just say it's a good thing I wasn't attacked yet."

Rivyera came in and dashed over to Cynder, giving her a quick examination.  "Dear ancestors, those brutes..." she hissed, producing some simple medicine herbs and a bowl.  Crushing them up as best she could, she motioned Neves over.  "Here, hold this so she can drink it, it'll help with the concussion."  Turning to Caelos next she had Flame help her with some more herbal salve to put over the bruise.  "Coming, little ones!" she called out loudly, Flame wincing again as the yell was practically right in his ear.  "Alright, get them both plenty of water and something to eat if you will," she ordered quickly, then rushed out.  "Aww it's okay mommy's back!"  The door shut behind her, leaving them in silence again.  

"It's never easy is it?" Flame groaned.

"Of course you would point that out..." Cynder grumbled.  "Ow..."

"But why is Tephra here and why did she come to rescue us?  I thought she was gonna kill us cuz we couldn't use our elements!"

"I guess we'll have to wait until the others get back, the guardians are gonna be very busy for a while now."

Tephra rolled the door open and shuffled in, quickly closing it behind herself to muffle Volteer's rapid shouting.  Not even looking at them, she padded over to the far window and flopped down to stare outside silently.  An awkward silence drowned the room, the kids not really knowing what to do with Tephra here on one side and a bunch of angry Guardians on the other.  At length, Cynder finally had enough.

"So why did you come to rescue us?" she asked.  Tephra only snorted in reply, to which everyone rolled their eyes in resignation.  "Guess we gotta wait for Sidian to get back..."

"I did it because Sidian asked me to, now shut up.  Just your presence makes me sick."

The awkwardness continued even through a hurried dinner of their stored food.  Caelos tried to be nice and offer his jerky and some fruit to Tephra, but she completely ignored it.  Gradually they drifted off to sleep, mulling over the recent events.  

Morning wasn't much better, Tephra was still being pointedly moody to express her disdain for everyone in the Temple, and the Guardians were still quite irate about the "unprecedented and flagrant ignorance of sanctions", according to Volteer.  Plazyma and her team didn't get back until late afternoon, and Spyro, Nightshade, Bianca and Hunter didn't arrive until after nightfall, all four looking very much in need of rest.  Tephra stayed out in the garden this time, her mood worsening after she'd handed the notebooks to the Guardians at their request for her findings.  She'd spoken not a single word to anyone except Sidian when he finally visited her privately, but even then she was very angry about something.  What it was would have to wait until morning when the others had given their findings.