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// Dragon: Dealing with Metalhead 
// Story: Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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The first thing Spike did, after leaving Terrance Village, was head over the log that served as a bridge between where the portal to the realm he had tackled was located and the where the portal to Misty Bog was sitting, though he stopped when he reached the area near the well that he and his siblings would be entering soon. The reason he was standing here was because the portal to the Flight Realm was in the area below where he was standing, as the well lead to the portal, and he was sure that Spyro and Ember would come to this area once they noticed where he was waiting for them, as this was the last thing they would tackle before heading to Sadiki's realm to save him and take out the enemy commander. He had to admit that he was curious as to what his siblings had faced in their realms, mostly so he could write it down when they headed to the land of the Dream Weavers once they were done here, and he was interested in sharing what he had done with his siblings as well, just so they knew what he had accomplished without them. Talon, on the other hand, flew around the area he was in for a few moments, like he was bored out of his mind or something, though it wasn't long before Ember emerged from the Misty Bog portal and glanced around her, before spotting Spike and headed over to them.

As soon as they were together again Spike told his sister what happened in Terrance Village, about the enemies that he had encountered during his visit to that realm, before he stopped and let Ember take her turn, only to discover that she had been busy freeing the various dragons and taking out the enemies that had been there, especially the attack frogs, but one thing she did confirm was that Gnasty Gnorc was definitely creating more aggressive versions of the creatures of the various lands, based on what she was told earlier.

"Those attack frogs sound interesting, even if they are more aggressive than their original counterparts," Spike said, as he found what Ember had to say to be interesting, even though the plants and the other enemies in her realm had caught his interest as well, meaning that her realm would make for a good addition to the story he was writing at the moment, before he glanced in the direction of the other portal, "Now I'm curious as to what Spyro encountered during his visit to Tree Tops, especially given what we faced in our respective realms."

"I'm surprised that he hasn't come out of his portal yet," Ember added, because they had been sitting here for a few minutes, talking about the realms they had visited and the enemies they had taken out along the way, but what made her worry was the fact that neither of them had seen Spyro yet, since she was sure all three of them had entered their portals at the same time and would have expected them to exit the three realms around the same time.

"Maybe he encountered something that slowed him down?" Spike offered, as that was the only thing that made sense to him when he thought about it, that Spyro must have found an obstacle or something that was delaying him, but he knew they could wait for a few more moments before they really started to worry about their brother.

Spike and Ember stood there for a few more minutes, where they started to wonder what was keeping Spyro from leaving the realm he had taken on and if they needed to step in to assist him in clearing out the realm, but their worry disappeared when they finally spotted their brother appear in front of the portal. A few seconds later he turned towards them and headed over to where they were standing, though as he got closer the pair discovered that he wasn't too happy about something and knew that he had found something inside the realm he had taken on that had annoyed him, which only made them wonder what he could have encountered.

"Spyro, did something happen?" Ember asked, where she waited for their brother to get close to them before even saying anything, though even then she could tell that there was something that had annoyed him, because he had been excited to tackle Tree Tops and now that excitement was gone, replaced by his current expression.

"Tree Tops was much harder than I thought it would be," Spyro replied, indicating that the realm must have been more difficult than what they thought it would be when they went over the various realms in this land and were deciding who would be tackling which realm, before he sighed as he decided to tell them what he had encountered, "Apparently two thieves, one wearing a green robe and the other wearing a red robe, were trying to steal some of the treasure that belonged to the Beast Makers, but to reach them I had to use some supercharge ramps to reach them, ramps that were all over the place, and I had to use multiple ramps to reach my targets. The problem is that there were only two paths I could take with the supercharge ramps, but it took a lot of time and effort to figure out where the second one was located and, even if I knew which of the various ramps formed the second path, it also took some time to get the twists and turns right, as I failed over and over before finally getting it down... Tree Tops was not the easiest realm in this land."

"It sounds like an interesting realm, one I might have to check out in the future," Spike commented, though at the same time he now knew why Spyro seemed annoyed about something, as it seemed that the second path he had been searching for was a difficult one to get right, but at the very least it appeared that Spyro had succeeded in his mission and had taken out the two thieves that he had been chasing.

"Well, maybe when we're done saving the Dragon Realms we can come back and you can see Tree Tops for yourself, and possibly test the realm yourself," Spyro stated, though his tone suggested that he would hear what his siblings said later, when they were traveling to the land of the Dream Weavers, and that he wanted to take care of the Flight Realm and the enemy commander before doing anything else.

Spike and Ember nodded their heads in agreement, showing that they were fine with doing what Spyro was saying, before all three of them jumped down into the well that was near them, where they landed on the ground and headed through the portal that was in front of them. It didn't take them long to reach the Flight Realm, which appeared to be another island of some kind that had some buildings attached to the various pieces earth that were sticking out of the water, which was much clearer than the rest of the realms they had seen so far, though that was when they focused on what they were doing and started to fly around the area. Spyro and Ember focused on the electric arch and the Gnorc that was using a boat to get around the area, while Spike spotted a golden chest and smashed it, before heading over to the tunnel that another one was in, where he separated from his siblings again as he took out the chests that were in front of him. While he was doing that Spyro and Ember also separated from each other, where Spyro headed up the waterway that was nearby and focused on taking out any Gnorc that was in a boat, while at the same time Ember headed up the other path and focused on smashing the electric arches that were in her way, though as they followed their paths they ended up flying by each other at some point, which caused them to chuckle as they did so.

While they were doing that Spike found an area that held the remaining chests, after following the tunnel that the first few chests had lead him to, which contained eight Gnorcs in planes flying around the area, where he focused his fire on them after clearing out the rest of the chests and blew his targets out of the air, just like they had done in the past, before he found that there was nothing left for him in this area and flew up to the upper parts of the Flight Realm to reunite with his siblings and make sure the amount of gems was the same as the previous Flight Realms.

"Now that's what I'm talking about. This realm is way easier than Tree Tops," Spyro commented, though he waited for Spike to arrive before he told his siblings what was on his mind, showing that his mood had improved after his experience in the realm he was supposed to take on, while at the same time Spike counted the gems in front of them, giving him and Ember a chance to relax for a few moments before they departed from this realm and headed to Sadiki's realm.

"Not to mention the fact that all three of us tackled it together," Ember added, as part of the reason they had taken care of the Flight Realm so quickly was because they were able to separate from each other and clear out the various objectives at the same time, allowing them to get multiple things done at the same time, and she suspected that Spyro wished one of them had been in Tree Tops with him, just to make finding the other path easier, before she turned her head to where Spike was sitting, "So, Spike, I'm assuming the amount of treasure we just recovered is the same as what we found when we were flying around the previous Flight Realms?"

"That's right, three hundred in total." Spike replied, his tone indicating that Ember was correct and that the amount of treasure was the same as the three Flight Realms they had taken care of so far, though once he said that he had Sparx, Talon, and Cinder tap the gems and send them off to the Bag of Holding he had created at the start of their adventure, as the gems would be safe in the Artisans homeworld for the time being and, when Gnasty Gnorc was taken care of, they could distribute the treasure back to the lands the dragons lived in.

"You know, I have to ask something," Spyro said, because while he was happy that they were recovering all of the stolen treasure, and were putting it somewhere safe that Gnasty Gnorc's forces couldn't get to, there was something about this that was bothering him and he figured that Spike might have an answer for him, "Aren't you worried that, with all the gems we're been recovering from Gnasty Gnorc's forces, the sack you enchanted might burst at any moment?"

"The Bag of Holding is enchanted with a limitless space for us to store stuff in," Spike answered, as he knew that either Spyro or Ember would have asked him about this, as he was sure they were close to eight thousand pieces of recovered treasure, based on the coloration of the gems anyway, and that recovering this much treasure might have worried them for a few moments, "the inside of the bag will allow us to store all of the treasure that Nestor and the others have obtained over the years, the twelve thousand treasure that Astor mentioned, and the outside remains as a normal sack, so you don't have to worry about it bursting on us. The only way something like that could happen is if someone damaged the sack itself, and, since we left it in our homeworld, I don't think we'll have to worry about that happening either, especially since we took care of all the enemies that were invading our home."

"I see." Spyro said, though at the same time he wasn't surprised, as Spike would have thought the spell through before he cast it and it appeared that his brother had done so, meaning the treasure was safe and sound, no doubt with Nestor and the others possibly even counting the gems out for when the adventure was over.

With Spyro's question answered, and the Flight Realm cleared like the ones in the previous homeworlds, the siblings jumped into the air and flew off once more, heading to the outskirts of the realm they were in so they could return to the well that the portal they had entered was in. It didn't take them long to reach the outskirts of the Flight Realm and vanish from the area that all three of them had been flying in, nor did it take them long to reappear in the well, where they took turns using the whirlwind to get back to the surface and waited until they had regrouped before heading out. Since they had taken care of all the enemies that were attacking the central hub area they didn't have to worry about being attacked at all, but that didn't stop them from focusing on the fact that they would be engaging in a battle with one of the two remaining commanders, which would leave the one in the land of the Dream Weavers once they had finished their business in this homeworld. They were interested in seeing what sort of creature or being was waiting for them in Sadiki's realm, because the previous commanders they had faced had been quite interesting, especially since they could be surprised by what they found in the final realm for this land, but either way they were going to free this homeworld and start their work on the next homeworld, before turning their focus to the land Gnasty Gnorc ruled over.

It took them a few minutes to reach the portal in question, but as soon as they reached it the trio entered the portal and headed to the realm that Sadiki lived in, his personal realm like Nevin's castle and Trondo's training grounds, which only made them wonder what sort of realm the best of the Beast Makers dragons lived in. A few moments later they appeared on what appeared to be a dock of some kind, one that was connected to the outside of a castle, one that had a similar style to the one that Nevin lived in, but, like the other realms they had visited in this homeworld, it was surrounded by the dark green swamp water. That fact didn't surprise them at all, in fact the only realm that didn't have swamp water was the Flight Realm and they had been a little shocked by that fact when they discovered it, but in the end they focused on their mission and climbed up the wooden steps that were in front of them, allowing the siblings to enter the castle and start clearing out the area. In fact the first enemy they spotted was one that Spyro had taken care of, the strongarm apes and the banana boys from Tree Tops, though this time around the banana boys were wearing metallic armor and were being used as rolling balls by the larger apes, who would kick them if one of the siblings got close. Interestingly enough the strongarm ape that was directly in front of them, even though he was on the level above where they were standing, only had two armored banana boys, meaning he could only kick two of them before his ammunition was gone, so while Spyro and Ember charged through the poor armored banana boys that were sent at them, and returned them to their original forms, Spike did the same for one that tried to attack his siblings from the side.

As soon as those three enemies had been taken care of Spyro flamed the strongarm ape that had been in front of them, after climbing up to reach him, before noticing that there was another one off to the left of the entrance, with one of the armored banana boys near him, though he left those enemies to Ember as he picked up the gems that were near him and Spike smashed a few chests that were in the area he had been in a few moments ago, before gliding over to a small area that two gem chests were on, which he claimed as well.

Once that was done the siblings regrouped near the log bridge that connected the area they were in to the next part of the castle, as it appeared that the apes might have installed it so they didn't fall into the river that was flowing through the structure they were in, not that the trio blamed them for that since none of them wanted to fall into the water either, especially since all three of them were sure it was some sort of swamp water. Spike, on the other hand, stopped them from moving forward and beckoned to the side of the castle that was on their right, as there was an iron grate of some kind that happened to be missing part of it, which could serve as an opening to the other side of the wall, where they might find more of the treasure Gnasty Gnorc's forces were trying to steal. Spyro and Ember glanced at each other for a few seconds, as they weren't sure if there was anything back there, but, at the same time, Spike hadn't been wrong in the past, about hidden treasure and areas that might hold something, so they were willing to see what he had in mind. As such they let him glide down to where the broken grate was located and landed on what appeared to be a small area that someone could stand on, before he jumped through the gap and landed on a walkway on the other side, which was when he turned around and beckoned for them to join him, indicating that he must have found something.

As it turned out there was an area for them to walk around and some stairs for them to climb, along with a few gems in front of them that got collected immediately, though when they reached the top of the stone stairs they found four metallic chests and, more importantly, a key to a locked chest. Spike picked up the key without delay, since he was the one that could carry it thanks to his satchel, but while he did that Ember found a second set of stairs that mirrored the one they had climbed up, leading to three normal chests, so she glided down to them, smashed them and collected the gems that had been inside them, and then climbed up the stairs to join them. From there the siblings headed down the first set of stairs and found a whirlwind in a small chamber that was to the left of the opening they had glided through, a whirlwind that took them to the top of one of the towers that rested inside the walls, where they could glide to the top of most of the other towers from where they were standing. Of course the whirlwind didn't let them land on the top of the tower that it was connected to, rather it allowed them to glide over to the top of a nearby tower so they could land and then glide to one of the other towers, so while Ember stayed on top of the first tower both Spyro and Spike glided over to the next one, where they left their sister to smash the chests that were near her, though when they landed Spyro dealt with the gem chest and collected the nearby gem as well. Once that was done the three of them jumped back down onto the ground and regrouped near the log bridge again, this time carrying a key to a chest they would need to find before they left this area, but Spyro and Ember were happy that Spike had searched the area in question, as it allowed them to recover more of the stolen treasure, before they focused on the area in front of them once more.

This time the trio crossed the log bridge without pausing or heading somewhere else, though directly in line with the bridge was a strongarm ape that kicked two of the armored banana boys at them, where Spyro and Ember dealt with them as Spike picked up the gems in the area they were in and smashed whatever chests he discovered, one of which was a gem chest, a few normal chests, and a fireworks box. While he did that his siblings climbed up to where the strongarm ape was located and flamed him, while also charging through the armored banana boy that was preparing to throw a bundle of bananas at them, though once all of that was done, and the gems had been collected, the three of them climbed up the path on the right side of the log bridge, coming from the entrance, and found a few more enemies waiting for them near the castle wall. Those enemies included two more strongarm apes, who both had a single armored banana boy to kick their way, where the trio took the armor wearing banana boys out with a charge, then flamed the pair of strongarm apes, before charging into a hidden banana boy, armored like the others in this realm, to clear this area of foes. That allowed the trio to break the chests that were around them, while gathering the gems that had been inside them and the ones that had been laying on the ground, before they headed down the hidden path and stopped when they reached a familiar statue, one that Sadiki had to be imprisoned in.

True to their thoughts the dragon that had been trapped down here, in front of a large chamber, was none other than Sadiki, who stretched for a few moments, since he and the other Beast Makers had been trapped in those statues for quite a long time in comparison to the other dragons, before he stopped doing that and faced the trio.

"Thanks for rescuing me from that prison, I was getting stiff." Sadiki said, which the trio understood since the dragons were forced to remain in a single pose thanks to their statue prisons, though at the same time they were curious if Sadiki had any information for them before the battle with the next commander started, "Anyway, Metalhead is all charged up to meet you in battle, so all you have to do is enter the chamber to my left and he'll close the door when you're ready."

"Metalhead? Sounds like another of Gnasty Gnorc's creations." Spyro commented, because so far it seemed that some of the commanders were beings that their foe had made in the past, sealed or locked away due to their power or for another reason, only to be brought out due to them meddling with his plan to take over the Dragon Realms.

"From what I could gather, which isn't a lot, he's definitely one of Gnasty Gnorc's creations," Sadiki replied, showing that he knew something about the commander they would be fighting, even though his statement was correct, he really didn't know much about the being in question, as he bowed his head and departed from the area, leaving them to deal with Metalhead and whatever tricks he had in store for them.

The trio turned towards the chamber that they were going to enter and found a large metallic being that was standing at the back of the chamber, where it seemed to have some electrical components on it's shoulders, had a pink colored saw blade that seemed to serve as a mohawk, green curved horns on the side of it's head, and two different types of hands, as the right hand seemed normal and the other seemed bulky, like it was a cannon or something.

"So that's Metalhead." Ember commented, though she was slightly impressed that there was a commander that was wearing a full set of metallic armor around their entire body, unlike the previous commanders they had taken out, which meant that this was going to be a difficult fight, "Okay Spyro, it's your turn to take down one of the commanders, especially since Spike and I have already fought one of the previous commanders in a one-on-one battle."

"Right." Spyro replied, as he had been hoping that his siblings would allow him to tackle a boss on his own at some point, even though his options were only Metalhead and whoever was in charge of the forces in the land of the Dream Weavers, before he prepared himself and stepped into the chamber, where his siblings walked in and stood near one of the walls so they could see what happened, just in case the door closed when the battle started.

Spyro glanced at the chamber for a few moments and found some electrical poles of some kind that were sticking out of the floor, no doubt installed by Metalhead's minions after Sadiki was imprisoned by Gnasty Gnorc's spell, though he did notice that some of them were glowing green and some were red, with bits of electricity going from the devices and heading into his foe's body. He had no idea why this was going on, since he and his siblings didn't know anything about how electricity worked or what weaknesses it possessed, but at the same time he noticed that there was a slot near the ceiling of the chamber, where a few strongarm apes and armored banana boys were waiting. He assumed that Metalhead would be throwing those foes at him over the course of this battle, just like the strongarm apes had done with the armored banana boys earlier, meaning he had to be careful as he moved around the chamber and planned how he was going to tackle this commander. One thing he considered was charging through one of the poles and seeing if it could be broken, maybe to open a hole in Metalhead's defenses, because due to his size and the fact that he was made out of metal it was pretty obvious that flames and charging wouldn't work, so he had to think of a new tactic to use against this foe, though as he thought about all of this Spyro made sure he was moving around the chamber, keeping his eyes on the being he was fighting, just in case he tried something to surprise him in some manner.

Of course he was surprised when, instead of throwing one of the other minions at him, Metalhead raised his right arm and fired a blue beam of energy at him, where Spyro dodged the beam before it could hit him and stared at her foe for a few seconds, as it appeared that his foe needed to charge his energy for a specific length of time before firing that attack at him, meaning he'd have to be even more careful now that he knew about that attack.

As Spyro moved around the chamber, and studied his foe for whatever weaknesses he might possess, the one thing he did so was have Sparx grab the gems that were laying on the ground, that way they didn't distract him anymore than they were already doing, and it wasn't long before the fallen gems were cleaned up. Judging from how well Ember and Spike did in their own battles, against Doctor Shemp and Blowhard, he had the feeling that they might have figured out Metalhead's weakness already, and if they hadn't than they were close to doing so, but he wasn't seeing anything that could help him out. Though it was in that moment that Metalhead raised his right hand and one of the armored banana boys jumped down into his palm, tucking their body into a ball, which was when the large being hurled his minion at Spyro, like the strongarm apes had done earlier. Fortunately it never hit him, as Spyro just so happened to be standing behind one of the poles when the deed was done, so all he had to do was watch as the armored banana boy collided with the pole and crushed it, along with returning him to a gem in the process, but the most important thing was that the poles could be destroyed, which would no doubt have an effect on the commander once they were all taken out. Since his foe was different from what his siblings had faced, in the fact that he didn't speak and didn't seem to have any emotions, Spyro knew that it was impossible to tell whether or not the being realized that it was in danger or if it felt fear, but he focused on what he had learned and moved faster than he had been doing so far.

Instead of wasting more time, by studying his foe, Spyro charged through the green poles and crushed them in no time, while patiently waiting for the red ones to turn green so they could be smashed as well, all while avoiding both the beams of energy and the enemies that his foe threw at him, but in the end all eight poles were broken... leading Metalhead to open the door behind him and flee with the rest of his minions following him, meaning there was another stage for them to fight in before this homeworld would be free from Gnasty Gnorc's grasp.

"Good job figuring out Metalhead's weakness." Ember commented, as she and Spike had noticed what was going on with the poles some time after the battle between the pair had started and figured out that they had to be connected to the commander in some way, which was confirmed when all eight of them had been smashed and Metalhead retreated from where they had been fighting.

"Thanks. If it wasn't for him accidentally breaking that one it would have taken me longer to figure it out," Spyro said, as he felt that he might as well admit that it had taken him some time to determine what his foe's weakness was and how he was supposed to use it against him, though at the same time he and his siblings followed the path that Metalhead had headed down once the poles had been destroyed.

The trio did stop for a moment, as there was a set of stairs heading up to where the strongarm apes and the couple of armored banana boys had been standing, where Spyro climbed up them and found a number of gems up there, though once they had been picked up he returned to his siblings and they headed down the tunnel. It didn't take them long to reach what appeared to be the final area that Metalhead wanted to fight in, as it was a large open area that had a green waterfall on the left side and a decent platform for someone to run around while they focused on Metalhead, where Spyro found nine poles this time around, one more than the previous chamber. As he stepped down into the area in front of him, and left him siblings behind, they all noticed the large structure that was behind the commander and knew that it had to contain the exit portal for this realm, but to get there he had to take out Metalhead and the rest of the smaller enemies that he liked to throw at him. This time, as soon as he drew close, the commander raised his hand and hurled one of the strongarm apes at him, causing Spyro to dodge the attack and then jump out of the way as he avoided one of the beams of energy that Metalhead fired at him, before focusing on the poles and targeted the green ones that were near his current position, because now that he knew his foe's weakness this was going to be over in no time.

The interesting thing was that it appeared that the destruction of the first set of poles actually weakened Metalhead more than he was expecting, as there was a longer delay in his attacks this time around, allowing Spyro to charge through the poles when they were green with more ease than he was expecting, and when the final one was broken the lights that served as Metalhead's eyes turned off and he collapsed on the ground.

"It seems that those poles were directly powering Metalhead's body, and taking them out turned him off," Spike said, though he was interested in what they had discovered, because this was something entirely new for them to study, and he knew that there were some dragons in some of the homeworlds that would enjoy taking a moment to study what Gnasty Gnorc had done to take this being, "It also seems that his minions were connected to him in some manner, as the moment you took Metalhead out they disappeared as well, no doubt returning to their original gem forms, so all we have to do is pick up the gems, collect the rest of the treasure, and then get out of here."

Spyro and Ember nodded their heads in agreement, where the three of them split up and started searching the large chamber that they were in, so they could find the other gems that had to be in this area, though Spike found some steps on the left side of the chamber, where the waterfall was located, and jumped on them for a few moments. That brought him to a small opening that contained two gem chests and the locked chest that the key he was carrying went to, which he gladly slipped in since it let him claim the gems that were inside it, before breaking the other chests and collecting the other gems. Once he was done with that he walked around the waterfall and glided down to where his brother had faced Metalhead, which was when he walked into the structure that his siblings had entered and watched as they walked around the upper level of the structure, since they had used a whirlwind to get up there, and collected the various bits of treasure that were resting up there. It didn't take his siblings long to return to where he was standing, which was near the exit portal, but before they left all three of them had Sparx, Talon, and Cinder see if they could sense any additional gems in this realm, just in case one of them missed something, though the three dragonflies indicated that there weren't anymore gems in Sadiki's castle, so they jumped into the exit portal and headed back to the central hub area for the land of the Beast Makers.

A few moments later they appeared outside the portal to Sadiki's castle and turned to their left, as it was time for them to depart from this homeworld and head to the land of the Dream Weavers, so they could free those dragons and their land from Gnasty Gnorc's creations, but, as they approached the hot air balloon, Cray, the Balloonist for this land, stopped them as they neared him.

"I know you three are eager to reach the land of the Dream Weavers, but we need to make a quick stop at one of the nearby bathhouses to get rid of the swamp smell," Cray stated, where the trio glanced at each other, because this was the price for coming to this homeworld, they had to take a few moments and wash themselves to get rid of the smell that was on them and everything they had on them, and there was no avoiding it, so they simply nodded their heads as Cray beckoned for them to get in the basket.

As soon as all three of them were sitting in the basket, and Cray had joined them, they departed from the land of the Beast Makers and headed off in the direction of the land that the Dream Weavers called home, though they would stop once they were out of the swamp and take a bath to get rid of the smell... but once they were clean, and were smelling normal again, they would focus all their attention on freeing the final clan of dragons and then deal with whatever Gnasty Gnorc had in store for them in the land that he ruled from, before bringing an end to this adventure.