Spyro: The Dragon Trio of Avalar

by Blackdrag-rose


Dragonfly: Robots in the Jungle

Once Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, and Elora returned to the main part of Castle Hills, and left behind Thieves Den, they headed down the path that would take them back to the castle that was in the middle of the homeworld and stopped a few moments later, when they reached the area that contained the jungle trees and the ancient structure that served as the portal to the final realm of this island, Jurassic Jungle according to what Spike said, where they found that the professor mouse was still standing to the right of it, though as they approached it they discovered that it was more of a Rat Professor and not a mouse like they had originally thought.

"Hooray! I have no idea what you did, but now my contraption is working once more!" the Rat Professor stated, almost as if he thought that the portal structure was something that he created at some point in the past and that he knew the ins and outs of it, though at this point none of them decided to say anything about that to the resident of the final realm, as he would either realize his folly at some point or he would forever remain of the opinion that he created the structure that the portal rested in, "Go ahead, step right through the energy and it will transport the five of you somewhere cool... at least I think it will, as I can't guarantee anything after what I've been through..."

The group glanced at each other for a moment before they walked around the Rat Professor, where they were still a little surprised that they had gotten the type of critter wrong the last time they had seen the individual in question, where they headed through the portal that was behind the professor and departed from Castle Hills once more, heading to the final realm that needed to be explored and assisted, before heading back to Ripto's portal so they could put an end to his schemes at long last. The area that they appeared in a few moments later appeared to be another ancient structure that was facing a jungle that a path had been carved into, either by the Rat Professor and the other residents or by the types of Riptocs that would be bothering this realm, though there was no portal attached to this structure, which was what they were expecting since this was the starting area for this realm and the exit portal was located elsewhere in this realm, but as they glanced at the area that was in front of them they noticed a few mechanical enemies. That caused the five of them to raise their eyebrows for a moment, as they honestly weren't expecting to find a few robotic enemies, meaning either they were made from Ripto's spell or they were creations made by the residents of this realm, the Rat Professors from what they had seen, and they were rebelling against those that had created them, though Spike did note down that there were two types of enemies for them to deal with, where one happened to be a large silver colored dinosaur, one that was definitely a robot of some kind, and a pair of green scaled dinosaurs that weren't robotic at all, no doubt similar to the residents of Skelos Badlands. Once they took in the form of at least two of their enemies, which would be nice and more like they had faced in the past, the group walked out from the area that they were standing in and turned to their right, as that was where the first Rat Professor of this realm, as in the first one that was on the other side of the portal, happened to be standing and that meant they could figure out what was going on in this realm, though once he told them what was happening to this realm they would head out and take on the challenges that were scattered throughout the jungle, just like they had done to the previous realms of this island.

"Ah-ha, Spyro, Cynder, Spike, Ember, Elora, its good to see that you have arrived at last!" the Rat Professor said, where his tone revealed that he had been waiting for them to arrive and, more importantly, that he was pleased to see him, even though it was easy for them to determine that he had been waiting for them to arrive so whatever problems were in this realm could be taken care of by the professionals, before he glanced out into the area that was beyond where they were standing at the moment, "The R-1000 and T-Rex 1000's have done what we considered to be the impossible, as they have escaped from their inescapable cages and are currently running amok in the jungle, targeting the science labs and all of the areas that our research was left in..."

"Let me guess, you want us to take them down before they do any damage to your labs?" Cynder inquired, because at this point in time she was totally used to the lifestyle that Spyro and the others had been living and knew what they would do in this realm, talking to the first resident of the realm they were visiting and seeing what was happening to the realm in question, something that was usually followed by Spyro promising the resident that they would deal with the problem and restore order to the realm, which was when the Rat Professor nodded his head to confirm what she had said, which she was pleased to see, "Don't worry about the R-1000's and the T-Rex 1000's, not to mention those Caveman Riptocs, as we'll take care of them and restore order to this realm, even though this will be the first time we've encountered these types of enemies during our adventures."

"Oh, well, I guess I can put it in simplified terms that dragons such as yourselves, not to mention a faun like Elora, can understand without being confused," the Rat Professor replied, where it didn't look like he was aware of the fact that he just called all of them dumb, using his own choice of words, especially since Elora was wearing the start of the art armor that she and the Professor had put together and Spike was one of the smartest dragons, if one the smartest dragon, that lived in the Dragon Realms, though instead of being annoyed the group remained silent for now, "basically, the R-1000's and T-Rex 1000's are mechanically enhanced nanotech propulsion-oriented Riptocs, which we have been working on in our labs for the last year or so. They're quite start of the art, more so than anything you've dealt with."

"Fascinating... nanotech, propulsion based technology... those could help the Professor create even better suits of armor for myself and the other protectors of Avalar," Elora commented, because based on what she recalled the Professor had big plans for the next couple suits of armor that he wanted to make for her, before he went into making better armor for the Royal Guards of Avalar and better weapons for hunter and the others, though that was when she thought about something else that they could ask before they got underway, "Since you know so much about them, surely you must have found some sort of weakness in your creations?"

"Well, we did find a massive flaw in the R-1000 models, that when they are exposed to sub-zero temperatures their bodies can shut down or break," the Rat Professor stated, though at the same time his tone revealed that he was losing his patience with the five of them, almost like he was expecting them to just hear what he had to say and then leave as soon as they knew what was going on to this realm, something that Cynder didn't appreciate, "while the T-Rex 1000's are, based on our observations, vulnerable to electricity, so a blast from such an element should shut them down or break them, but we haven't gotten close to do such a thing to them... that's all I have to share on our models, anything else would go over your heads and cause you to stare at me with dumbfounded stares."

The group stood there for a moment as they stared at the Rat Professor for a few seconds, who returned to looking at his clipboard as he walked away from the area that the five of them had appeared in, as in he walked into the structure that was behind them and seemed to focus on whatever notes happened to be on his clipboard, before they sighed and walked down into the area that the three enemies were standing in, as in Elora did a backflip and crushed one of the two Caveman Riptocs with a kick to the head, opening the way for Ember to barrel into the chest of the other foe, leaving the way for Spyro to loose a burst of his Lightning Breath to blow down the T-Rex 1000 that was near them.

"Okay, before we go any further, I have to ask: is anyone else annoyed with that Rat Professor?" Ember asked, because while she was annoyed with the individual in question, due to the fact that it seemed like he had called them dumb at one point and she honestly couldn't confirm or deny her thoughts on the matter, she had no idea what the others were even thinking at the moment and had to wonder if any of them were feeling what she was feeling right now, especially Spike, given his intelligence and everything that he knew about.

"He and the other Rat Professors are probably used to those that don't know what they're talking about," Spike said, though even as he said that Cynder returned to the two stone pillars, which had metallic fences near them, and smashed a few straw baskets and metallic vases, so she could collect the gems that were inside them, before he glanced at the area that was around them, even though he did glance at the structure the Rat Professor was currently standing in, before he frowned for a moment as everyone regrouped near him, "though, to be perfectly honest, I wish he would have attempted to tell us everything that is going on, with all the specifics that they've learned about since their experiments started, but all we can do is move forward and see what else this realm has to throw at us."

Spyro and the others glanced at each other for a moment, as the frown that was on Spike's face was exactly what they were expecting to see at some point during their trek through this realm, though as soon as he was ready to move forward and explore the rest of this realm they left the area they were standing in and made sure to smash a few metallic vases so they could pick up the gems that were around them, before they climbed the steps that were behind there the T-Rex 1000 had been standing and paused as they noticed that a ruined carved stone bridge rested between the area that they were standing in and the next part of the jungle, and below them rested what appeared to be a molten ravine, which was when they noticed a decent sized volcano to their left.

"Well, I certainly wasn't expecting this," Spyro commented, because the presence of a volcano in this jungle told him and the others that they would have to be careful as they progressed through the rest of the realm, as there was no telling what might be resting throughout the rest of this place, since there could be some magma creatures if they were unlucky, but for now he focused on what was in front of them and carefully started to cross the stone bridge that was in front of them, leaving the others to observe what was going on so they knew where to go and what to avoid, especially since part of the bridge collapsed in the process.

Standing on the other side of the stone bridge was one of the T-Rex 1000's that they would be taking down over the course of their trek through this realm, where he dodged the beam attack that was coming his way as Spike sent a quick Lightning Bolt through the air and struck his target so it would go still, even though Spyro made sure to smack it for a few seconds as the others flew over the ruined bridge and joined him, where they found that, just like all of the other enemies they had fought, the enemies of this realm were made from gems, meaning the Rat Professors either captured some of Ripto's minions and twisted them or these mechanical Riptocs were of their own creation. Once they were back together the group made sure to surround the temple that the T-Rex 1000 had been standing in front of and collected the couple of gems that were scattered around this part of the realm, even though that meant smashing some straw baskets and some of the metallic vases, before they found a chest on the right side of the stairs that lead to the temple's entrance, one that meant they needed to find a key to unlock it, before they regrouped at the front of the structure and headed for whatever was inside the temple. As it turned out there was a pool of lava at the top of the steps, meaning that whoever had built this temple must have built a lava resistant pool so the molten material didn't devour the sides of the pool and spill out into the surrounding area, something that Spike was a little interested in when he considered what they were seeing, before he found a single platform between them and the entrance of the temple, so the siblings and Cynder just flew over the entire gap and landed in the opening while Elora jumped onto the platform and joined them. From there they entered the main part of the temple and followed the tunnel as it lead them right to another T-Rex 1000 that happened to be blocking the way, where this time Spyro decided to try something else and used a bit of his Ice Breath to freeze the robot where it was standing, something that was followed by Ember smashing it to pieces with a swift whack of her tail, before they found out what it happened to be guarding, a set of platforms that were surrounded by more magma.

As it turned out getting across the set of five platforms, and avoiding the few bursts of fire that came from the magma every now and then, was easier said than done as the group took turns jumping over the platforms and avoided the fire as they moved towards the other side of the passage, where they regrouped and explored the other side of the area that was filled with magma, only to find a pair of straw baskets and a pair of gems resting nearby, though what caused them to stop was the fact that there happened to be a Rat Professor in front of them.

"Gems, still fresh, three days old... they're following us..." the Rat Professor said, where it appeared that he had to be taking notes on whatever had caught his interest, possibly the Caveman Riptocs that were hanging around the realm, even if the group had only seen a few of them since they started exploring Jurassic Jungle, but that was when he turned his head to the side for a moment and noticed that the five of them were standing nearby, as they were curious as to what he was doing right now, "Oh, hello there. I've been studying this temple for a while now and, from what I can tell, it can be quite fascinating at times, all things considered, given the magma and the platforms that are behind you... also, from what I can tell, the strange drawings that are on the walls of this temple have to be a clue to something, possibly a great treasure left behind by the ancients who built this place, but I haven't been able to decipher them since I started my studies. In fact the only thing I have been able to decipher is that the statues inside this chamber have gems that react to heat, so maybe you guys can figure something out."

The chamber in front of them was more of a square shaped area that had a few statues that appeared to be appeared to be carved into the wall to their right and the one on their left, though there were four enemies in the chamber, three of the Caveman Riptocs and one of the T-Rex 1000's, were Cynder quickly used her Shadow Play spell to deal with two of the more simplistic Caveman Riptocs, Elora kicked the third one as Elber struck it at the same time, leaving Spyro to use his Ice Breath to freeze the T-Rex 1000 as Spike quickly blasted the ice with a Lightning Bolt to blow their foe apart. Once all four of their enemies had been defeated, and they were sure there were no more around the area, Spike noticed a few things right off the bat, one being that there was a table near the opening that the Rat Professor was standing near and the other being the fact that the five statues had different colored gems resting inside their chests, gems that were reflected on the square pedestals that the humanoid statues were resting on, where he stared at them for a few moments as Spyro and the others smashed all of the breakable containers and collected the gems that were around them, before heading up the metallic ladder that was nearby and headed up to the upper level as Spike stared at the statues. What they discovered was that there happened to be a T-Rex 1000 up on the area that was above the opening they had found the Rat Professor near and Spyro froze it with his Ice Breath, allowing Ember and Elora to smash it to pieces with ease, meaning that what they had been told earlier was rather inaccurate, as it appeared that the T-Rex models were also susceptible to the sub-zero temperatures that the Ice element inflicted upon those that were caught in the blast, before discovering that it had been guarding the first dragonfly of this realm, which flew over to them and then headed down to the area Spike was standing in at the moment, who paused what he was studying before sending it back to Castle Hills, leaving them with nine more dragonflies to locate before they faced Ripto.

What was interesting, while Spyro, Cynder, and Ember started to collect the gems that were laying on the ground and smash the metallic vases that were scattered around the area, Elora found the key to the chest resting on top of one of the statues, so she collected it and jumped down to where Spike was standing, to slip it inside his satchel for later, since she was sure they would find a way back to the starting area once they located the exit portal, before seeing if he needed any assistance in figuring out whatever he was looking at. Spyro paused before he and the others got too far ahead of Spike and Elora, since he knew they wanted to see what else the realm had to throw at them, before noticing that his brother was currently staring at the five square shaped indents that rested throughout the temple chamber they were currently exploring, which was when Spike took to the air and stared at the couple of indents he and the others were seeing, as he had spotted something interesting and that made the others wonder what he had found out. Spike stared at the indent that had the red gem inside it and found one etching of a snake inside part of the indent, before he moved over to another one, the green one, and found two markings attached to it, only for him to fly around the chamber and discover that the blue one had three markings, the purple one had four, and the yellow one had five of them, where it was easy to figure out exactly what he needed to do next. What he did was focus on the five statues that were near the table, something that did rest near a larger statue that a dragonfly seemed to be trapped inside the chest of, by magic that he would prefer not to tamper with, so he channeled his magic and lashed out at the gems on the statues in the order the indents spoke of, as in red first, then green, followed by blue and then purple, before ending in yellow, and of course he used a small Fireball to hit the gems in question, before the table and the chest of the large statue glowed and the second dragonfly teleported to the top of the table. Once that was done Spike smiled as he quickly sent the dragonfly back to the main castle and then took a moment to write down what he had discovered in his attempts to solve the puzzle that was in this chamber, where he felt that this puzzle was surprisingly easy, especially after how hard the Rat Professor made it out to be, before he and Elora headed up to where the others were standing and resumed following the path as it lead them out of the chamber and let them delve deeper into this realm.

The path that was located at the top floor of the temple, and would take them outside, eventually brought them to a wooden bridge, one the group found was above a massive pool of magma, which appeared to be the center of the active volcano they had seen earlier, and it appeared that there was another structure that rested on the other side of the area from where they were standing, where they quickly discovered a stone platform between the two structures and that one of the T-Rex 1000's happened to be standing on it, though that didn't stop Spike from freezing it with a burst of Ice Shards so Elora could smash it to pieces. Once that foe was taken care of the group moved through the opening that was in front of them and entered the other structure, where they picked up a few gems along the way as each of them kept their eyes open for any dangers that might be waiting for something to ambush, before discovering a few stone platforms that were connected to the walls and had magma between them, so they carefully jumped over the gaps and made their way to the end of the passage they were following, even though that was where they discovered that there was another volcano off in another part of the jungle, something that only made them wonder how many of them there were in this realm. It was in that moment, as they walked over the wooden bridge that was beyond the end of the passage they had followed, that they discovered one of the side portals that belonged to this realm, one that was in the area below the bridge, where it even had a Challenge Gate resting near it, so what they did was have Spike, Elora, and Ember head down into the lower area, so they could smash the metallic vases that were in the area and collect the gems that were resting on the ground, while at the same time Spyro and Cynder headed for the T-Rex 1000 that happened to be standing on a circular stone platform that rested at the end of the bridge, leading to Spyro freezing it with his Ice Breath so Cynder could smash it, though that was when they found another wooden bridge, opposite of the first one, that lead to another platform that one of the T-Rex 1000's was standing on and appeared to be waiting for them.

Of course that was when a Lightning Bolt rushed passed them and struck the T-Rex 1000 and struck it down, where it was easy to see Spike, Elora, and Ember were ready to join them, due to the fact that the trio in question walked up to the area they were standing in, before the five of them moved forward and discovered something interesting, there was no bridge leading to the next structure, which was connected to the next volcano, rather there were a few stone platforms for them to jump on and traverse to get to their destination, which was what they did as they moved forward and headed for the structure that was the path forward. They had to be careful when one of them landed on the platforms in question, as they shifted a little whenever one of them touched them, but fortunately nothing major happened and they were able to reach the end of the magma path and land in front of the tunnel that was leading them into the volcano, hopefully so they could cut through it without being near the magma at all, though, as they soon discovered, there was a T-Rex 1000 in the way and it seemed to be waiting for them to come towards it. Spike shocked it with one of his Lightning spells and that opened several weaknesses for Elora to kick apart and Ember to smash with her tail before the foe fell apart and opened the way for them to move forward, which brought them to a part of the volcano that had a few openings that allowed the five of them to see some light from the outside, though their main focus was on the straw baskets that were near them and the gap that was just beyond where the T-Rex 1000 was standing. As such they jumped over the gap and smashed the couple of straw baskets apart as they approached a Caveman Riptoc and a T-Rex 1000, which was where Spyro shocked their robotic enemy into submission and opened the way for Cynder to smash it while Ember knocked down the Caveman Riptoc and smashed it with her tail, leaving Spike and Elora to keep an eye out for potential enemies, even though it did look like there was a path of small wooden walkways that seemed to be leading slightly deeper into the area, which had two of the Cavemen Riptocs and one of the T-Rex 1000's standing in the way.

As the enemies fell before the might of the group, and they made sure to break the metallic vases and straw baskets that were along the way and collect the fallen gems, Spike noticed that there were a few ruined walls that seemed to be part of whatever tribe had built the temple the statues had been in earlier, though due to the nature of the area that was around them, which was the inside of the volcano that was all around them, made it impossible for him to determine what was going on, so all he could do was carefully write down everything that he saw as they made their way down towards the end of the path that the bridges formed, which happened to be where a second Challenge Gate was located. Instead of heading down to talk to the Rat Professor that was standing at the bottom of the path, near where the Challenge Gate was resting, the ground found a wooden bridge on their right and took it as they headed through the tunnel that it brought them to, where they picked up the gems that were on the ground and quickly came to a stop as they reached another area that had a Challenge Gate waiting for them, along with a few metallic fences that had electricity dancing over their surfaces as they stared at them, before turning their attention towards the ring of magma that seemed to be between them and the area the exit portal had to be resting in. As such the group moved forward and smashed the few metallic vases that were in the new area they had found and discovered that one of the Rat Professors happened to be standing near the Challenge Gate, no doubt with something he wanted to tell them and would lead them to one of the dragonflies of this realm, which was why they quickly cleared out the area they were in and approached the individual in question, though as they did that it was easy to see that there was a red robed Thief either standing on top of the magma or floating above it with some magic.

"Oh, hello heroes, I'm in a bit of a pickle... that mean old Thief stole something from me. Can you believe that?" the Rat Professor stated, where he glanced out at the area that was beyond where he was standing and focused on the Thief that was carrying something in his sack, which was when they glanced at the individual in question as Spike noticed that the Challenge Gate had the Invincibility symbol floating between both posts that made up the gate, meaning that once one of them charged through it they would be able to run over the magma without being harmed, "He stole a bio-molecular hologram projector from me, something I need for my experiments, and if you would recover it I would, of course, reward you graciously for your actions."

The group glanced at each other for a moment before they rushed through the Invincibility Gate that was resting near them and jumped down into the area that the Thief happened to be standing in, even though they were a little surprised by the fact that there were a few Caveman Riptocs standing on top of the magma to their left, which was why Cynder took care of them with her Shadow Play power while the rest of the group followed the Thief as he headed to the right, even though it appeared that he was making a circle around the small volcano that was in this area, something that was a bad move as he ran straight into Cynder, who knocked him out and let Elora claim the sack before it hit the magma, allowing them to make sure the goods were inside it before they returned to the Rat Professor.

"You know, I wasn't expecting you to return so quickly," the Rat Professor said, which the group was expecting him to say this time around, as there were five of them and it was easier for them to figure out what their enemies or the Thieves were up to, so they could outsmart them, before he checked the sack that was offered to him and nodded his head for a few seconds, showing that they had found what had been stolen from him, before he reached into his pack and pulled out the third dragonfly of this realm, "Here, I found this dragonfly wandering around the jungle earlier, like it was lost, and I was planning on taking it back to the lab to study it, but I guess you guys deserve it more than me."

Ember looked like she wanted to say something, about how annoyed she was with the Rat Professor and his need to experiment or study anything that he got his hands on, but she said nothing as Spike sent the third dragonfly home and they returned to the area the Thief happened to be located in, where they smashed the oddly placed straw baskets that were in front of them, which shouldn't be there given that magma was below them, before collecting the gems and came to what appeared to be the end of the area, a chamber that a Rat Professor was standing in, even though there was an opening near him that a platform moved up into and disappeared a few moments later.

"Hello heroes, I'm glad that you made it to this area of our realm, and took out the rampaging enemies that happened to be standing in your way," the Rat Professor said, where he held a hand out and the fourth dragonfly of this realm flew out and joined the group for a moment, even though it flew near the third one, as Spike had held off on sending it back to the castle, just in the off chance that they found the exit portal beyond where Thief was standing, and it turned out that his thoughts were correct on the matter, "As a reward for your heroic efforts, and in the name of good science, allow me to offer you this dragonfly that I found sometime ago."

Spyro nodded his head as Spike used his magic to safely teleport the two dragonflies back to Castle Hills, though once that was done they cleared out the area that was around the Rat Professor and used the platform to move down into the area that the exit portal was resting in, where they smashed the couple of straw baskets that were around them and then moved down the passage that happened to be resting near the portal, which brought them to a wall that opened up and revealed that they were back at the starting area of this realm. From there the group took to the air and headed for the temple structure they had seen earlier, where it didn't take them long to land in front of the chest that they had seen and Spike slipped the key into the lock, something that was followed by them releasing the fifth dragonfly of this realm and he sent it back to the others as well, meaning they had five more dragonflies to locate before they were able to say that they had recovered all of the ninety missing dragonflies that Ripto displaced with his spell. With the chest opened the group headed through the temple and the areas that they had explored earlier, as this time they didn't need to worry about any enemies or the breakable containers that had been removed during their earlier trek through this realm, and it didn't take them long to reach the area that the first side portal was located in, the one that had a challenge gate near it, so that was when they passed through the portal and headed into the first side section of this realm. The area that they appeared in seemed to be near the top of a volcano, one that seemed like it might be getting ready to blow, by Spike's estimates based on what he was seeing, before they glanced at the area in front of them and found a slide, carved out of the stone of the volcano's side, that was waiting for someone to use it, not to mention a Rat Professor was standing nearby, like he had something to tell them before they left the area he was currently standing in.

"My calculations indicate that this volcano is about to blow, and the only way to escape it is to use this slide and get to the bottom!" the Rat Professor stated, almost like he had no concern for his own safety, while at the same time confirming Spike's thoughts on the matter, that the volcano was getting ready to blow and that they had a short period of time before such a thing happened, before he gestured towards the start of the slide, almost as if he was indicating that it was time for them to get out of the area, "Don't worry about me, just focus on saving yourselves!"

"Yeah... how about no?" Cynder remarked, where she took to the air and grabbed the Rat Professor with her claws, so he would be dangling from her claws for the foreseeable future, something that surprised the resident in question, before she glanced towards the others for a few seconds, who nodded their heads and rushed over to the slide as Spike used his Ice powers to create boards of ice for the four of them, mostly since the challenge appeared to be heading down the side of the volcano by sliding, but this meant they would have an easier time controlling their movements as they raced the eruption that would be coming in the near future.

As it turned out the volcano happened to erupt shortly after they started sliding down the path that had been carved into the stone that was in front of them, where they made sure that each of them avoided the open pits of magma that were in their way while Cynder flew through the air with her passenger hanging on for dear life, even though she wasn't planning on dropping him anytime soon, though what the group found out was that the path they were following was easy for them to traverse and they came to a stop in the chamber of a temple that the slide brought them to, where they were joined by Cynder a few moments later and she dropped off her passenger. It was in that moment that they found out that the Rat Professor she had saved was the one that was supposed to be at the end of the slide, meaning he would have been safe due to some teleportation device that he quickly pointed out to them and declared that, while they were fine heroes, they really needed to work on improving their minds and their intelligence, since he was of the opinion that they should have just left a surperior mind behind and let him save himself, before Spike sighed and lashed out with a quick headbutt, knocking the individual out as he revealed the sixth dragonfly of this realm. Normally Spike would ignore what the residents of the various realms said about him and his siblings, but this time around the Rat Professor directly insulted all of them and, in his own terms, claimed that they were dumb, though Spike was of the opinion that if the Rat Professor had a teleportation device he would have mentioned it before hand, though since the individual did that he just snapped and knocked him out, as he really hated being called 'dumb', before he sent the dragonfly back to the main castle and they headed though the nearby portal to leave this part of the realm behind. Spyro and the others understood why he was so upset over what the Rat Professor had said, and they knew that if he had insulted them any further than what he had done one of them would have lashed out as well, but in the end none of them really said anything as they followed him back to the main part of the realm and resumed looking for the remaining dragonflies.

Once they were back in the area that the first side portal was resting in, just like they did whenever they left one of the side sections of a realm, it was easy for them to spot the Lightning Challenge Gate that was resting nearby and Spyro just passed through it to see what happened, which was followed by eight metallic rods appearing in the surrounding area, as in near the gate and not scattered throughout the area, so it was painfully easy for him to just fly around the area and use his Lightning Breath to activate the eight metallic rods and release the seventh dragonfly of this area, which Spike sent back to the main castle before they headed for the area they had seen the other Challenge Gate in, one that happened to be another Invincibility Powerup based on what they were seeing at the moment. It was in that moment they learned that the R-1000's, the enemies they hadn't seen during their adventure in this realm, had blown up a lab and stole whatever equipment had survived the destruction, at least according to the Rat Professor that was standing nearby, so what they did was pass through the gate that was near the resident and started to explore the magma filled area, where Spyro and Spike separated into two groups, given that they were the only ones that could actually freeze the R-1000's and open the way for the others to take their foes down, so Cynder followed after Spyro while Elora and Ember did the same with Spike as they focused on tracking their metallic targets and taking all of them out. The R-1000's that were scattered throughout the area didn't even attempt to take any of them down, which was rather odd and made them wonder if there was more to the story than what they had been told, as it really didn't seem like these guys were dangerous at all, though while they took down the metallic dinosaurs Spike found the eighth dragonfly of this realm and had it follow them as Elora picked up the fallen components that the R-1000's had stolen from whatever lab the Rat Professor had mentioned, which seemed to be immune to the magma that was around them.

It didn't take the group all that long to explore the magma filled area and discover the location of the second portal that would take them to the other side section that they had been looking for, so they moved through the Invincibility Gate that was resting in front of the stairs and returned to the Rat Professor that had asked for their assistance, granting them the ninth dragonfly of this realm as they turned over the container of items they had recovered, before Spike sent both dragonflies back to the main castle and they headed back to the side portal... which brought them to an area of the realm that had a massive tower resting in a crater of some kind, one that seemed like a gauntlet of some kind as they stared at it, before noticing the Rat Professor standing nearby.

"Welcome, brave adventurers, to the Tower of Scary and Ridiculous Height!" the Rat Professor declared, like he was someone that was working on an amusement park ride or something, based on what they had seen in Dragon Shores and watched someone tackle what the Gnorcs had made to amuse the younger generations of dragons, which they might see at some point in the near future, before they focused on the individual that was in front of them and wondered if he had anything interesting to tell them about the tower, which was when he did what seemed to be a wicked laugh, the 'mwa hah haah' type of laugh, "If one of you can climb to the top of the tower, and overcome all of the challenges that rest between us and the peak, you will prove yourself worthy of the tower's secret treasure... oh, and no one can help you, all they can do is watch and wait for the challenger to fail."

The group barely had time to even talk about who would be taking on the challenge of the tower, mostly because that was when Ember rushed forward, gripped onto the metallic ladder that was in front of her, and started climbing the side of the tower, something that was when the carved heads above her started to loose boulders towards her, though as the Rat Professor grinned, as if he felt that things were going to shift in his favor, Ember smashed through the boulders and continued moving forward. Spyro and the others glanced at each other for a moment, as they knew that Ember had used the Warrior's Armor skill to break the boulders that were coming her way and pushed herself up the ladder that she was currently climbing, eventually bringing her to an area that had a few dart launchers that did nothing to her, thanks to the skill she was using to protect herself, before she reached an area that some spiders happened to be climbing on, as some obstacles for the tower, but their attacks did nothing to her as she moved along the path that was in front of her. It was clear that the Rat Professor wasn't very happy with what was going on, as he was expecting Ember to be knocked down by one of the obstacles that were in her way and seeing her smash her way through everything that was being thrown at her didn't sit well with him, though he watched with a frown on his face as Ember pushed through the challenges that were in front of her, before tapping something that allowed him to teleport out of the area he had been standing in and quickly reappeared on top of the tower, just as Ember reached the area in question. From there Spyro and the others watched as the pair seemed to talk to each other for a few moments, something that was followed by Ember flying down to them and revealed that she had found the tenth and final dragonfly of this realm, the ninetieth and final missing dragonfly that had been displaced by Ripto's spell, based on what Spike had recorded, meaning that they had everything they needed so they could breach the portal their foe had created and could put an end to his plans.

With the dragonfly sent back to the main castle, and Spike was sure that they had recovered all of the missing gems that had been scattered throughout this realm at the same time, the group headed through the portal and returned to the main part of the realm, as it was time for them to head for the exit portal and return to Castle Hills, so they could check with Bianca and take the fight to Ripto at long last, so they could put an end to his plans and restore order to this land, and get back to the event he had interrupted with his arrival.