//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: Enemy Contact; // Story: Halo 6: Heroes Unite // by SonicStreak5344 //------------------------------// Chapter 2: Enemy Contact; Location: At the remains of Vermillion City in the Kanto Region; UNSC Military Calendar Date: May 13th, 2021; The next thing, Spyro and Cynder, were launched out of the portal, that led to their world and landed on the ground skidding across the paved road. The two dragons were disoriented thanks to their traveling through the wormhole, but now they were at their destination. As they got their bearings, Cynder managed to get to her feet and open her eyes to see the devastated city around her. She hadn't seen this kind of destruction since the war with the Dark Master several days ago. At first, the black dragoness thought the damage caused during the battle for Warfang was bad, but on this level it wasn't possible, not to mention, the whole place was deserted. As she looked around the street that Spyro and herself landed in she said to herself in disbelief and fear, "What in the name of the ancestors did all of this?! And where are all the people?" Spyro who finally regained his senses, as he walked up beside Cynder and said to her with shock as he saw the surrounding devastation, "I don't know, but we need to find out where we are first." Cynder nodded, and the two dragons began to walk forward to find out their present situation and location. The duo walked down the empty streets with only the sound of the wind blowing pieces of paper and burned leaves with the smell of smoke and fire all around them. This city was weird, well coming from two dragons who managed to defeat a giant evil dragon bent on destroying their entire planet with a giant monster born from dark magic. But this place was defiantly different from Warfang back in the Dragon Realms where dragons and moles lived. However, who was supposed to live here? The dragon duo walked down streets and saw more buildings, some completely demolished, as they lay in ruins after they were attacked by some unknown force that could do this amount of damage. They knew this was strange and knew they weren't alone here, but pretty soon things were about to heat up. As the duo turned a corner, Spyro saw more buildings that were either standing or falling apart, like they were blown up by bombs or something explosive. Cynder looked around more and saw the buildings that surrounded them and said to Spyro, "I can't believe this; it looks like the city was bombarded by some bombing run." Spyro soon replied to Cynder's response and said to her, as he got a feeling that someone was behind all of this and had a bad feeling they weren't alone, "I know, and I don't think we're alone in this city." Cynder nodded in agreement as a determined look came onto her face. She had to keep her guard up because things were about to get busy. The duo kept walking and turned left onto the next street until they heard loud footsteps coming from the next street in front of them. Quickly, Spyro and Cynder stopped and ran behind some rubble of a destroyed building just as the footsteps got louder and louder until strange humanoid Pteranodon like aliens wearing high-tech jumpsuits walked in military formation holding alien weapons and walked for an unknown destination. The two dragons had seen everything and slowly walked out of their hiding spot as the small patrol walked away from their present position. Cynder who was in shock and disbelief, said to Spyro trying to come to terms, that they had seen strange beings that they had never recognized, "S-spyro, did you see... what I just saw?" Spyro nodded and said to the black dragoness with a similar look on his face, "You mean those weird bird things that just passed us? Yeah, I did too." The two heroes walked slowly up from their spot and poked their heads around the corner that the strange alien soldiers had walked by earlier to see if there were more of them. Sure enough, down the street were 20 more soldiers, and they were using advanced equipment and were building what appeared to be huge anti-air guns pointed at the sky. Spyro and Cynder now knew why there were no civilians around the city—because the city was taken over by an alien force and they appeared to be preparing for something. But the question was: why were they preparing anti-air countermeasures? Suddenly, soldiers and the two dragons heard a loud sound coming from the sky as it got closer and closer every minute. Cynder looked around and said to Spyro quietly as she started to get a bad feeling a fight was starting, "What's that sound, Spyro?" Spyro didn't know until he looked up towards the sky before gaining a shocked expression on his face and saying to Cynder in a nervous tone, "Uh, Cynder you might want to look up in the sky!" The black dragoness raised an eyebrow and looked before she too gained the same expression as Spyro had on his face. Falling from the cloud-covered sky were two alien ships in flames as pieces were broken off from their bodies as they hurdled down toward the surface of the city. When the pieces and ships struck the ground, powerful shockwaves sent rubble and dust flying all over the city as they crashed in the nearby forest. Spyro and Cynder held onto the ground, their claws keeping themselves from being sent flying off into the air thanks to the shockwaves that were rocking the ruined city, but it stopped. The two dragons looked up to see bellowing smoke in the distance, knowing they had landed in the middle of a war zone. When Cynder looked up at the sky and saw that the clouds were blown away thanks to the two falling ships, she saw in the blue sky what appeared to be explosions of light in it too. She then said to Spyro, with shock at what she was seeing, "Spyro, look up in the sky! Do you see that?!" Spyro looked up and saw the same sight that the black dragoness was seeing and said to her with a concerned look on his face, "Cynder... I think we may have bitten a lot more than what we can handle!" Location: Above the Alternate Earth's Atmosphere; UNSC Military Calendar: May 5th, 2561; Just above the planet, the joint UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios fleet were busy battling the strange ships that were blockading the planet in front of them as MAC gun rounds shot off from the Infinity, UNSC Frigates, and Carriers, while the elite ships fired plasma rounds at the enemy fleet as the enemy fleet was returning fire and shooting plasma rounds as well. Explosions were ringing through the area as the two sides were trying to see who yielded first, but the joint fleet managed to take out several enemy ships, sending them falling into the planet's orbit and into its atmosphere. So far, the joint fleet was having no problems except sustaining minimal damage to their ships thanks to their shields, but their new foe had shields too, however, they weren't as strong as the ones on the UNSC and Swords of Sanghelios ships. Inside the UNSC Infinity, Admiral Laskey watched the outer space battle continue as the bridge crew kept him up to date on their progress in getting through the blockade. So far, everything was going well, but things were about to change. Soon Laskey said to Roland as he appeared on the holotable, "Roland, how much farther until we break through this planetary blockade!" Roland responded to the UNSC Rear Admiral by saying to him with a concerned look on his face, "Not long, Admiral Laskey we're just about through. I've already contacted the Spirit of Fire and Shadow of Intent, along with the others, to prepare ground forces for a planetary assault!" Laksey was about to reply when suddenly the ship was struck by a powerful plasma round from the planet that struck Infinity, knocking the shields down to 20%! The massive supercarrier rocked and shuddered from the force of the round before Laskey yelled to the bridge crew, "REPORT!" One of the bridge crew members that was looking at the ship's shields and system exclaimed to Laskey in shock, "Shields are knocked down by 80%, and the Infinity has taken damage on several levels! The MAC gun also took some damage, and we're sending repair teams there to get it back online!" Then another crew member of the bridge exclaimed to Laskey as a planetary scanner picked up what remained of Veridion City in Kanto saying, "Admiral! Planetary scans have picked several anti-air cannon emplacements that appeared to be modified to fire at longer ranges in several locations, and the one that hit Infinity came from a city on the continent in front of us on the planet!" Laskey knew they had to take out those anti-air cannons before they could land the Infinity and the rest of the ships on the planet. They had to launch an immediate ground assault right away, or the Infinity and the other ships were going to be ripped apart one by one thanks to the cannons. Soon the rear admiral looked at Roland and said to the ship's Ai, "Roland! Send ground forces down there to disable those cannons and get this out to the other ships to launch an immediate planetary ground assault! We need pelicans, phantoms, marines, elites, and spartans down there now, or we're all finished, and send Chief and his team along with Fireteam Osiris to take out that cannon that fired on us before it could fire again!" Roland nodded and said to the rear admiral with a serious look on his face and a salute, "Right away, Admiral!" Location: Hanger Bay 12 in the UNSC Infinity; In one of the hanger bays, marines and Spartan IVs were being rushed into waiting Pelicans who were ready to take them down to the alternate Earth they were trying to get through to. Both marines and Spartan IVs loaded up their weapons, including assault rifles, shotguns, battle rifles, magnums, bulldogs, amgs, missile launchers, and many other UNSC-made weapons, ready to take the fight to their new enemy. As the human warriors ran for the waiting pelicans Roland announced to every single marine and Spartan that were on board the supercarrier through the ship's speakers, "Attention all marines and Spartans! Report to your teams and head for the main hangers to prepare for an immediate planetary ground assault! The ship's sensors have picked up multiple anti-air cannons on the planet's surface and are preparing to fire again! We are going to Deathcom Level 5! Repeat Deathcom level 5! All marines and Spartans prepare for combat! " As Roland kept repeating the announcement, a male marine jumped into an open Pelican's cargo bay and yelled to the other marines, "COME ON, MARINES! HUSTLE!" The hanger was flooded with both marines and spartans as several Pelicans took off from the hanger and flew down for the planet with several Phantoms from the Shadow of Intent and the 12 corvettes. More pelicans were ready and prepared for takeoff, just as Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris ran into the room with their weapons in tow, and Cortana was already in her new AI chip in Chief's neural interface in his helmet. Their mission is to seek and destroy the anti-air cannon that damaged the Infinity before it could fire again and take the city that it is occupying. As they were running, Cortana said to Chief as they neared the Pelican that was going to take them to the surface, "Whoever these guys are, they sure don't want us on that alternate earth down there! I even think they weren't even expecting us to arrive either! " Chief responded to his AI partner, saying to her, knowing that they were about to face a new enemy, "Let's worry about that later, Cortana. Right now, we need to take out that cannon before it fires again." Linda joined in the conversation as the two Spartan teams jumped into the waiting Pelican with four marines waiting for them, "Let's hope the Infinity can withstand another shot from one of those cannons before they start firing again!" Buck soon added in on the conversation as they got into their seats and their Pelican began to take off, saying to the female Spartan II with a determined tone, "Then we got to make sure they don't fire first!" Just as Buck finished talking, Locke finished the conversation by saying to his fellow Spartan IVs and the Spartan IIs in the Pelican, "Let's worry about those questions later, Spartans. Right now, we have an important mission to accomplish." Chief nodded in agreement with Spartan IV, knowing they had a very dangerous and important mission to complete. Then the Pelican's back door closed, and he took off from the hanger and flew into space, following the other pelicans carrying marines and Spartans for the planet's surface, followed by more Phantoms and Pelicans from the Shadow and the Spirit of Fire. As they flew past the remains of one of the unknown alien ships, plasma fire rained down on a few of the Pelicans from the remaining ships, taking out two of them and sending them spinning out of control and on fire towards the planet's surface. It wasn't long until the surviving Pelicans were able to enter the alternate Earth's atmosphere and make their descent towards their assigned objectives. Once they flew down into the cloud cover, they saw the ruined city that Blue Team, Fireteam Osiris, several Elites, and multiple marine squads were sent to and could see the large anti-air cannon that damaged the Infinity's shields earlier in the distance. The Pelican's pilot looked at the cannon and said to the group of Spartans and four marines in his bird's bay, "Whoa! That's one big cannon! It kind of reminds me of those cannons that were used by those Covenant Scarabs during the Human Covenant War while back!" Suddenly plasma fire shot up from below on the ground at the dropships and hit the pelican's left wing, with smoke and fire pouring out of the damaged wing as it began to spin out of control as the pilot exclaimed to the group in the back, "UGH! WE'RE HIT! I CAN'T HOLD HER! EVERYONE BRACE FOR CRASH LANDING!" The Marines, Blue Team, and Fireteam Osiris braced themselves for a crash, knowing this was going to be rough. The pelican spun around, descending fast toward the ground before crashing into a ruined building. It hit the building with an almighty crash, kicking up dust and dirt from the destroyed building. *CRASH* When the dust cleared, the Pelican rested upside down on its top, with fire and smoke still coming from its damaged wing. Some banging came from the door until it was knocked down by Fred and Vale as the two Spartan teams and the four marines walked out of their transport ship, which is now toast. As Chief looked back at the Pelican that were just on earlier, Cortana said with a sigh of relief, "'phew' That was a rough ride. Whoever those ships belong to above us sure had the good idea of putting turrets in place! I'm still wondering why they came to this planet for?" Chief just said to Cortana, saying to her in his usual tone as he pulled out his assault rifle that was buried under some broken stone, "I think we'll find out soon." Then Chief turned around and said to his team, who were awaiting his orders, "Alright. Blue Team, let's move out." Locke did the same to his team and said, "Let's get moving, Fireteam Osiris!" The other Spartans nodded to their team leaders, readying their weapons along with the four marines that were in the Pelican and soon began to run for the anti-air cannon that was ahead of them. The group walked past destroyed buildings and damaged 21st-century vehicles as they kept running for their mission objective, and to their surprise, no hostiles were in sight. Something didn't seem right. As Fred looked around and looked at his motion tracker to see if he was picking up any enemy signals, so far nothing; everything was clean. Then he said to Chief in a serious tone, as the Spartans were getting the same thing and no doubt they were being watched, "Chief, are you getting anything on your motion tracker?" Chief responded to Fred's question by saying to him, "No, but I don't think we're alone in this city. Stay sharp." And Chief was right when suddenly 10 red dots representing enemy hostiles suddenly appeared in front of them as the strange aliens that Spyro and Cynder saw attacked them, firing their strange weapons at the group. The four marines and the two Spartan teams dove for cover and returned fire as Chief fired his assault rifle at the unknown hostiles just like the others. The bullets pierced the jumpsuits that the unknown aliens were wearing, and navy blue-colored blood spilled from the wounds as they fell one by one. One of them then said to the Spartans and marines as he charged at them with a glowing cyan blue saber in its right hand in perfect English, "DIE HUMAN FILTH!" He was about to pierce Tanaka in the chest with its strange sword until Linda, armed with her sniper rifle, shot the charging alien through the head, killing him instantly. Fireteam Osiris' technician looked at Blue Team's sharp shooter, who was nodding in gratitude, before they turned back at the firefight they were presently in, as more of the aliens were coming for them and killing them except for one who had armor and a jumpsuit that represented that he was the commander who was holding a large weapon. The commander fired the gun, sending a ball of cyan blue energy at the group, who jumped out of the way just in time as it struck a building behind them and exploded. The Spartans and the four Marines looked behind them and saw a gaping hole in the building. Chief then ran forward for the commander and gave him a punch to the face as navy blue blood spilt out from its mouth and teeth knocked out his beak-like face. Then the Spartan II finished it up by picking up a fallen alien weapon from one of the fallen alien soldiers, firing a cyan blue blast at the commander's chest, and killing him at point blank range. The now-dead commander, thanks to the shot to the chest, fell backwards, hitting the ground behind him with a thud, kicking up dust and dirt, while Chief looked down at his defeated adversary. Once all the unknown hostiles were taken down by the resting of Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris, one of the marines looked at one of the dead dino soldiers that Fred killed and said in confusion, "Who called the dinosaurs? I thought they bit the dust millions of years ago?" Another marine walked behind the marine that was examining the dead body and said to him, "Yeah this is getting pretty freaky! What's next alien Triceratops with a bad attitude?" However, the third marine, who happened to be the squad's squad commander, said to the two marines, "Can it marines! We still have ways to go, and that cannon won't be taken out by itself." The second marine looked behind him and said to his commander, "Sorry squad leader!" Meanwhile, Vale was looking at one of the dead bodies of the aliens they just fought and said to Locke and her team, along with the Blue Team, "Defiantly not a Covenant species. I never saw a dinosaur like alien for the first time, but they were sure hostile." Tanaka then said to the group of assembled Spartans, "Not to mention they know how to speak our language, and one almost tired to killing me with a glowing sword! It didn't look like an Energy Sword and I don't want to find out what happens when you get hit with it." Fred soon joined in on the subject by saying to the group, "Do you think these guys are responsible for what happened to this city?" Soon Kelly looked at the Spartan II and said to Fred, knowing he had a solid point, "I think so, Fred, and maybe they're the cause of what happened to its population." Just as Chief was about to talk, Cortana picked up a transmission from one of the marines that were on the Pelicans that managed to land in the city, "This is UNSC Recon Team 415! Does anyone hear us? Over!" Cortana responded to the transmission and said to the marine through the com channel, "Cortana here! What's the situation, Recon Team 415?" Then the commanding officer of UNSC Recon Team 415 replied to Cortana, saying in a concerned voice, "We have sights on a platoon of unknown dino like alien enemy hostiles at our location. They seemed to... wait! They found something! It's... WHAT ON EARTH?! ARE THOSE REALLY?!" Hearing this, Cortana said to the commanding officer of Recon 415 with concern, "Sargent what is it?!" Then Recon 415's leading officer said to Cortana through the com channel with a serious tone of voice, "Cortana get Master Chief and the group to our positions immediately! The unknown hostiles are fighting a-and you are not going to believe this, but two real dragons! One male and one female! We'll send you our coordinates!" Cortana couldn't believe what she was hearing, but right now they had to move in order to save the two dragons before they got shot by these unknown hostiles. She quickly responded to the commanding officer of Recon 415, "Understood! We're on our way! Cortana out!" After she did that, Cortana said to Chief, who had happened to hear the transmission too, "Did you hear that, Chief?" Chief responded to his AI partner, saying to her, as they had no time to lose, "I did. Let's move." Soon, Chief told the group about what Recon 415 found, and without a word, the group quickly began to run for Recon Team 415's location. Although everyone thought that this was just a prank, they didn't cause it the way that Chief put it. These unknown alien hostiles found something not on Earth. Right now, they had to get to it before those aliens took whatever they found away. Little did they know that the two dragons that Recon 415 spoofed were a certain duo. Meanwhile with Spyro and Cynder... When saying things would go wrong that was the understatement of the year for Spyro and Cynder. They were presently fighting against the strange aliens that they encountered earlier when they first arrived in this world, but then everything went crazy. The strange turrets and the huge cannon began firing at the sky, with strange vehicles emerging from the clouds. One of them was shot down by one of the turrets. Now they were discovered by a platoon of the strange invaders who were using their strange weapons to either kill or capture them. It was just another day of adventure and danger for Spyro and Cynder. Spyro unleashed his fire breath burning the soldiers as they screamed in agony as the being roasted alive. He kept using his fire element and took to the air burning more enemies as he let loose his fiery assault on his new foes. Although these guys were dangerous they were also persistent as Spyro kept using his fire breath to deal tones of flaming damage to his new foes. Cynder on the other hand was having the same problem as she let loose her wind breath blowing the alien away like a cyclone. Then she jumped and began to spin creating a twister that caught the remaining soldiers sending them flying into a nearby wall of spinning in the air. The black dragoness soon landed on the ground still in fighting mode and didn't see an alien soldier had snuck up behind her and was about to shoot her in the back, however, she what the soldier was planning to do. She jerked her head to the rear right looking behind her at the soldier before stabbing him with her tail blade that was glowing in a poisonous green color. The soldier twitched and screamed in agony as poison consumed him and fell to the ground surrounded by a poison green mist. She jumped forward and landed on ground just as Spyro landed next to her on her right and said, "Well this is another fine mess we're in! Got any ideas on how to get out of this?!" Spyro looked at the black dragoness with serious look his face and said to her, "Yeah stay alive! If can get out of this mess!" Suddenly a cyan blue net flew for Cynder and colided with the dragoness sending her back and landed on her belly as the net trapped her inside tying her feet and wings together as she exclaimed in horror, "HEY LET ME GO!" Spyro looked at the trapped black dragoness who was struggling to get free and exclaimed in fear and knew he had to help her, "CYNDER!" The purple dragon ran over to help his future mate get free from the net until another net was fired and caught him too before skidding across the ground right in front of Cynder who exclaimed in shock, "SPYRO!" Spyro tried to break free of the net, but it was too strong for him to break open and Cynder was doing the same thing. But then the two were turned around by one of the alien soldiers just as another alien at the rank of commander with another alien, but wearing surgical green jumpsuit and had a tank on his back supported by a harness of some kind came walking up to the captured duo. Cynder was beginning to get scared as memories of who she once was from being held by the apes and turned into Dark Cynder by Gual and Malefor came flooding back to her and wanted to get out of here, but with their present predicament they couldn't and they were trapped. Then the alien commander said to one of his soldiers, "Are these the two that you found soldier?" The alien soldier nodded and said to commander of his squad, "Yes sir commander. These two are the ones that my squad stumbled across they don't appear to be Pokemon, but they were able to use elemental abilities." Then alien in the surgical green jumpsuit came closer to the duo kneeled down before putting a hand under Cynder's chin who was terrified of the alien and said in a intrigued tone, "Fascinating these two are reptilian not to mention they are able to fly with those wings they have on their back." Spyro just growled and roared at the alien in fury as he saw how scared Cynder was, "LEAVE HER ALONE YOU FREAK!" The alien looked back at Spyro and said to him surprised, "It appears this one has a lot of aggression. He must care deeply about this female here." Soon Spyro then yelled at the alien with anger as he struggled to get free from his net, "IF YOU LAY ONE FIGER ON HER I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET IT!" Then thanks to Spyro's outburst the alien sighed and said to the purple dragon, "Guess I'll have to sedate this one to keep under control. I would of liked to do it in a sterile environment, but we don't want him cause more damage to our troops on the ship." The alien pulled a small cylinder that produced a light blue color light and shined it on Spyro's muzzle before pulling out a black mask connected to the tank on its back by a black hose. He shined the light on the mask before it changed to match Spyro snout both size and shape. After that he pulled up a holographic screen from his wrist thanks to his jump suit before pull up a holographic dial on the screen and hiss came from the mask. Then he brought it towards Spyro's face. Spyro who was confused and angered at what the alien was doing exclaimed in shock, "HEY WHAT ARE YOU-MPPPPPH!" The alien place the mask over Spyro's snout and thrashed around in panic as he tried to get the mask off his face. The purple dragon tried everything, but his efforts were fruitless as he started to feel sleepy and before he knew it he closed his eyes falling into a deep sleep. Cynder who saw everything then cried out in shock, "SPYRO!" Soon the alien took the mask of Spyro's snout before Cynder who was outraged at what he did to the purple dragon yelled at the alien, "What did you do to him?!" The response she got from the alien was as he said to her in a reassuring manner, "Don't worry my black reptile he's alive. He's just sleeping from the gas I gave him though I will have to give him more along with yourself when we bring you two on the ship for examination and medical experiments." Cynder was now scared at what she just heard and exclaimed shock, "EXPERIMENTS?!" The alien responded to Cynder's yell and said to her, "Well guess I'll have to sedate you too, but don't worry you'll be safe in our laboratory on one of our ships. Now just hold your head still while I give you some gas to help you sleep." He soon brought the same small silver cylinder and used its light to scan Cynder's snout before transferring the data to the mask now matching Cynder's snout's shape and size. The alien started to bring the mask for Cynder's face who had a terrified look on her face and struggled to get free of her net. It was no good and mask was closer to her snout before the black dragoness screamed as she closed her eyes jerking her head to the left in fear, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" *BOOM* Suddenly there was a ear piercing boom and in a quick second the alien in front of Cynder was shot in the head as navy blue blood gushed out of his head and was killed instantly. Blood sprayed across the spot that the alien was killed before more booms came taking out soldiers at a fast rate first 2, 4, 6, 10, and then 12. Cynder opened her eyes and saw the carnage around her and wonder what was going on that's until she saw new 7 aliens wearing different armor in different colors charge in from the right hold strange weapons similar to her captors, but different in design. The new aliens fired their weapons killing the rest of Cynder's captors while one that was dark grey charged for the commander charged for him jumping into the air with jets on the back of its suit before pulling out a knife and stabbed the command in the chest where his heart was before falling backwards dead. The dark grey suited alien walked up to its dead foe and pulled out its knife from the dead body. Then the blue suited alien said to the others, "All enemy targets neutralized we're clear!" Cynder was in shock at what she just witnessed as these creatures managed to take out all of her captors and the one was trying to put her to sleep. Just then one of the aliens this one in red colored armor walked up to her and said to her, "Are you alright? I bet you were scared back there." The black dragoness was shocked that she just heard it talk to her and it sounded female before nodding in reply before saying to one of her rescuers, "T-thanks for saving me." Soon the dark grey alien walked up and pulled his knife again and said to the black dragoness in a male voice, "Hold on I'm going to cut the net open to get you out. Hold still don't want to cut you." Cynder did just that and stood perfectly still as the dark grey suited alien managed to cut open the net freeing her as she got her feet and opened her wings. Then he went over the sedated Spyro and cut the net around him. Once the net was cut the two white armored aliens pulled the net off Spyro and one put a finger to his throat before it said to the olive green one, "He's still alive just sedated that's all." The olive green one nodded before walking up to Cynder who looked at him with amazement and said in a male voice, "You ok?" Cynder responded to the being in front of her saying with a relived tone of voice, "Yes thanks to all of you." Then everyone heard another voice this one being female and came from another armored alien this one being tan in color say to the olive green one, "Chief I managed to take out enemy scouts that were trying to report our position. They don't know we're coming for that anti-air cannon in the city." The olive green one called Chief by the tan one nodded and said to the tan one, "Good job Linda. Now we need to get to the cannon and take it down." Just then the blue armored alien looked at Cynder and Spyro before saying to Chief with wonder, "What about those two Chief? We bring them with us and back to the Infinity?" Chief looked at Cynder and the knocked out Spyro before replying to the blue armored one saying, "Yes and we can't leave them here. Bring them along. Kelly you'll have to carry the purple one." One of the white ones named Kelly nodded and picked up the sedated purple dragon and threw him over her left shoulder and started walking leaving Cynder in shock and amazement before she heard of the red one talking to her saying, "You coming?" Cynder shook her head and started walking catching up with the group matching the pace of the red one as it looked down at the black dragoness with curiosity as Cynder said to it, "I never got to say thanks for saving me back there! Who or what are you and what is all this talk about a cannon?" The red one looked at Cynder and said to her, "We're Spartans! We're super soldiers for the UNSC and humans. The name's is Olympia Vale a Spartan IV and member of Fireteam Osiris." Cynder smiled and said to the red female Spartan IV, "Nice to meet you Olympia! Or would you like to be called by last name do?" Vale replied to the black dragoness and said to her as they were walking down a number of streets heading for a rally point where UNSC Marines were presently holding position to gain a direct route to the cannon, "Everyone calls me by last name just call me Vale. And you are?" As she understood that Vale liked being called by her last name soon the black dragoness replied to the red Spartan IV's question saying with a smile, "The name is Cynder! And the purple sleeping beauty is Spyro." But just as Vale say something everyone heard a certain male high pitched scream that Cynder recognized all to well yelling fear from the next corner, "WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! MOMMYYYYYYY!" Cynder sighed and said to herself in annoyance as she knew that voice from anywhere, "Oh-no don't tell me it's him again!" And to Cynder's dismay it was as Sparx the dragonfly Spyro's foster brother came flying around the corner on the right with terrified look on his face. A few seconds later whole platoon of aliens came around the same corner that Sparx came from was coming after him. They didn't look happy either as they were probably insulted by Sparx's remarks or being too loud to shut up. Then the leading alien soldier pointed at the big mouth dragonfly and roared in fury, "GET THAT STUPID INSECT! I'LL SHOW HIM WHO'S A CHICKEN AFTER I'M THROUGH HIM!" Sparx looked back at the soldier and yelled at him indignantly, "HEY! CAN ANYONE TAKE A JOKE HERE?! AND YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR!" That made the alien soldier really mad as his face fire red and growled before he announced to his fellow soldiers pointing at Sparx with his right hand, "GRRRRRRR BLAST THAT BIG MOUTH INTO NEXT WEEK MEN! FIIIIIIIIRE!" Sparx gulped and said quietly knowing he was in even more trouble now, "Uh-oh..." Then the alien soldiers started firing at the yellow dragonfly who screamed in terror and was flying away as fast as he can go. However, Sparx wasn't watching where he was going until he smash into into Cynder's chest as Blue Team along with Fireteam Osiris shot down the alien platoon. Within seconds the enemy platoon was netralized by the Spartans and silence fell over the area. Once the alien platoon was taken out Cynder looked at Sparx who fell to the ground dazed and seeing stars and said out loud disoriented, "No mommy I don't want to go to class today." That's until he heard Cynder's voice as she said to the dragonfly, "Sparx?" Sparx snapped out of his daze and looked up to see Cynder looking down at him a unamused look on her face before jumping into the air exclaimed in joy, "Cynder your alive! I thought you and Spyro goners when you guys didn't come back after battling that Dark Master dude and... hey? Where's Spyro?" Cynder looked at Kelly who was holding the knocked out Spyro over left her shoulder said to Sparx, "He's right behind you, but kind of sleeping right." Sparx turn around and saw Kelly and his sleeping foster brother, but was more intereted in the white female spartan and said with wowed look, "Whoa! Who's hot chick?" That made Cynder's blood boil and gained a very annoyed look on her face before she whipped her tail like a whip and sent Sparx into a pile of rubble screaming like little girl. Cynder then looked at Kelly and said to her in apologizing/embarrassed tone, "Uh heh sorry about that! Sparx is kind of hotheaded and doesn't know WHEN TO SHUT UP!" A muffled reply came from the big mouth dragonfly and said in annoyed tone, "Look who's talking you evilshe dragon!" That made Cynder's eyes twitched and looked at the spot where Sparx was and said in a very angry low voice with a very enraged look on her face, "What... did you say... Sparx?" Sparx who popped his head out of rubble gulped before he saw the look that could kill on Cynder's face and chuckled nervously, "Uh heh I didn't mean what I said earlier! It was just joke I take it back!" The black dragoness brought up her tail and said to Sparx as she patted him with her tail with a smug grin on her muzzle, "That's a smart bug." Once she walked away Sparx grumbled and got himself out the rubble before flying over to the group of Spartans who were surprised to the see the whole scene play out. Not to mention that Sparx and Cynder knew each other and argued like they were brother and sister, however, they found Sparx very amusing. But right now they had a mission to complete and started to run again for the cannon with Cynder and a mumbling Sparx not too far behind them. Several minutes later; After taking down more alien soldiers and clearing a nearby LZ for Pelicans to drop in more troops and supplies near downtown the group saw their target the anti-air cannon. The cannon was placed in the city's harbor giving it a lot of room to be used on target outside the planet. The good news was it was still cooling off from the last round it used which meant it wouldn't be firing anytime soon, but the bad news was that it was heavily guarded. Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris along with Sparx and Cynder including a still sleeping Spyro were on the roof of a nearby warehouse giving them a good vantage point. Cynder was shocked at the sheer size of the cannon and said with shock, "Whoa! That thing is huge!" Locke looked back at the black dragoness and said to her, "Agreed we'll have to go through those guards to take out that cannon." As they were talking Linda was looking through her sniper rifle's scope when she saw a light blue streak of light race by at a extraordinary speed. The tan Spartan II shook her head and thought she was seeing things and said to the group, "I got eyes on multiple enemy targets in defensive positions. Looks like we can't go through them directly we'll have to find another way to get inside." Chief was about to say something until Cynder spoke up and said the group, "I can get inside the cannon!" The Spartans looked at Cynder even Sparx who exclaimed in shock thinking she was nuts in going into a heavily guarded anti-air weapon that can almost take out a ship's shields, "WHAT?! ARE YOU NUTS CYNDER?!" Cynder looked at the dragonfly and said to him with a frown on her face, "No I'm not Sparx I'm the only who can get in and get out without being spotted. The Spartans here will be easily spotted in seconds by those aliens." Vale was curious about what Cynder was thinking and asked her, "How do you plan on getting inside Cynder?" Cynder smirked at the red female Spartan IV and said to her, "Like this!" Suddenly Cynder jumped into the air before she dove into her shadow before disappearing into thin air along with her shadow. Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris looked around shock and surprise while Sparx said to himself realizing that he completely forgot about that move, "Oh yeah! I forgot she could do that trick." Buck was looking around for Cynder said with confusion as the black dragoness was no where to be seen, "Where did she go?!" Suddenly the former ODST heard Cynder's voice from behind him saying to him, "You talking about me?" Buck turned around and saw Cynder with a smug grin looking at the spartans. The black dragoness then said to them, "Trust me there are somethings you need to know about us dragons after this mission is over especially about me and Spyro." Then Cortana said to Chief through his helmet's speakers as she was very intrigued and realizing that they have someone who can sneak behind enemy lines, "I think we have someone can take out the cannon without being seen!" 5 minutes later; An alien soldier walked into the cannon to check on the cool process so it can be used again to take out the Infinity that was battling ships up in the atmosphere. However, he didn't know he was being followed by a certain dragoness in his shadow. When he came to a stop the soldier looked around as his fellow comrades walked by before walking for the control room. What he didn't notice was that Cynder jumped out of a nearby shadow thanks to her having the shadow element and was wearing a UNSC Marine helmet on her head and said into the com link in the helmet that was put on the secured frequency that Blue Team and Frieteam Osiris were on, "Vale this is Cynder I'm in the cannon. Now what?" Then Vale said to Cynder through the com channel, "You need to find the power core of the cannon and destroy it. Cortana said it's located at the floor on your presently on once you see it take it out! Once you do the cannon will probably overload and explode so get out of there before it does!" Cynder understood what Vale was talking about, but she wondered who was this Cortana character she mention. Did it have something to do with the female voice she heard coming Chief earlier on the roof top of the warehouse? Cynder shook her head and soon said back to Vale through her com, "Copy that I'll contact you guys when I see the core! Cynder out!" Soon Cynder quietly ran through the interior looking for the power core of the cannon. When she saw the alien soldiers she used her shadow element to hid in the shadows and avoid detection. She kept looking until at last she found the power core for the cannon which was behind a small energy shield. None of her normal elemental attacks were going burst open the shield except one that had enough power to destroy it. Cynder then activated her com and said into contacting Vale, "Vale I found the power core! Ready to blow it sky high!" Vale soon responded to the black dragoness' transmission saying to her, "Good work Cynder now take it out!" Cynder smirked and was time for her do some demolition dragon style. She closed her eyes and began to focus as purple energy began wipe around her and slowly rose into the air before unleashing a purple shockwave from the energy buildup. The black dragoness opened her eyes and unleashed a powerful blast of convexity at the energy shield which instantly and smashed into the power core and destroying it. That when the whole cannon began to shutter and red lights flashed as the chain reaction was about to blow the cannon sky high. Cynder quickly dove into her shadow and raced away from the cannon while the soldiers were running out of it as one exclaimed out loud, "IT'S GONNA BLOW!" Sure enough it did as blue and white fire erupted from the cannon destroying it as parts fell from the weapon and onto the ground. Cynder emerged from the shadows and saw her handy work with the smoldering cannon in view. That however, was short lived when she heard weapons being readied behind her and when she turned around she saw the alien soldier with not, so happy looks on their faces. The black dragoness then muttered knowing what was about happen next, "Oh scales..." Suddenly a light blue streak came out of no where knocking the soldiers down sending them flying into one and another and being that saved Cynder's tail landed in front of her. The black dragoness was surprised to see a creature never seen before save her scales from being target practice and looked at it. The creature was a stallion with wings on both sides of his body and his fur was blue around a light turquoise blue color but his mane and tail were blue and spikey like a hedgehog's quills even though it was hair. The last detail was that there was a strange blue fireball mark on his flank like it represented speed. Cynder looked at the stallion with amazement before the stallion looked back her and said to her showing his face and eyes as he had grin on his face with emerald green eyes, "You ok?" Cynder nodded and said to the stallion with grateful look on her face, "Thanks for the help! I would of been toast if you didn't come along!" The stallion just said to her casually with a smirk like this was an everyday occurrence for him, "Hey saving the day is kind of my job good thing those aliens are down for the count. By the way the name is Sonic. Sonic The Hedgehog!" Cynder looked at Sonic with a confused look on her face as she asked him, "Huh? Your a hedgehog? Then why are you looking like this for? And by the way the name's Cynder." Sonic looked over his body and said to her with a sheepish smile, "Eh heh that's a long story." Cynder was about to ask when the two heard grunting coming from the soldiers who were getting up from Sonic's sudden attack. To say they furious was putting it lightly as the got up and grabbed their weapons aiming at the duo pulling the triggers and fired at them. Sonic and Cynder jumped out of the way just in time and were about to counterattack when they were surrounded by the alien soldiers. They charged at them began to overwhelm them except for Sonic who was holding his own against the aliens, but that couldn't be said for Cynder as she punched and kicked all over body. Suddenly gunfire came as the aliens turned around to see Blue Team and Fireteam Osiris coming for them while Linda was on the roof of the warehouse taking enemies out with her sniper rifle, but then UNSC Marines from the nearby LZ came in and started shooting as taking more alien soldiers down. Cynder was still holding onto dear life as she being beaten around and knew that these aliens weren't going to stop until her allies along with herself were killed. That thought was making her angry and felt her wind element getting more powerful each second. She was going to teach the alien invaders a painful lesson for trying to hurt her, her new friends, Sparx, and what they did to Spyro. Everyone was too caught up in the battle to notice the clouds beginning swirl around and the wind was beginning pick up all except Sonic who took down his alien foes without killing them noticed the sky and the wind. He then said to himself with a concerned tone, "I have got a bad feeling things are going to get pretty windy!" Back with Cynder she still took blows from the alien soldiers around and felt a feeling that she knew all too well. She felt like this when she used her Convexity breath, but this one was different and it felt more in tuned to her wind element. Suddenly when a alien soldier landed a kick on Cynder he hit something very hard and to his shock saw visible condensed air surrounding her entire body. The black dragoness opened her eyes and looked at the soldiers with a extremely angry look on her face that made the soldiers back away in fright and said them darkly, "You monsters made big mistake for picking a fight with me of all dragons!" When Cynder finished talking, the wind began to blow furiously as it howled, like in a hurricane or even a tornado. Then the black dragoness got to her feet and started to build up more elemental as she was going to unleash a fury not the fury she used to use her convexity breath, but an elemental fury. Sonic, who sent an alien soldier flying his boost move, turned around to see Cynder looking banged up with blood coming from her scales, surrounded by visible air which was protecting her. The winds started picking up even more, and he was surprised to see what was happening to her. The black dragoness soon opened her wings as she stood on her back legs, taking to the air when a massive tornado began to form around her, followed by multiple mini-cyclones forming out of thin air and started sucking alien soldiers, pulling them into the twisters. Inside the main twister, Cynder kept building up elemental energy until she collected enough as she opened her eyes and unleashed the new Wind Fury as she instantly opened her wings and released the howling winds around her, sending multiple mini-cyclones and four huge tornadoes around the battlefield, sending them into the aliens, and blowing them away towards the sky and in different directions with a massive burst of wind. When the winds finally calmed down everyone looked at Cynder who shocked to know she could pull off a extremely powerful attack that was able to blow away all the alien foes. The back dragoness was catching her breath as she was starting to feel tired and weak from the fighting and the injuries that she sustained during the fight. Then everyone heard a loud sound from the sky and coming out of the clouds triumphantly were the UNSC and Elite ships. Mission accomplished. Sonic was shocked and surprised to see ships that he never seen before said, "Whoa! Those ships are huge and I thought the Blue Typhoon was massive before, but those ships take the cake!" But then Sonic turned around and saw Cynder who was still trying catch her breath and said to her worryingly as he saw the state she was in presently, "Cynder? Are you ok?" However, Cynder wasn't ok when she suddenly collapsed hitting the ground before Sonic exclaimed in shock, "CYNDER!" Sonic ran over to the black dragoness and yelled to the UNSC Marines behind him who saw the dragoness collapse, "Get a medic over now!" Cynder who was barely awake laid on the ground felt weak and tired as she was breathing heavily as she felt herself losing consciousness heard ringing in her eyes and muffled sounds as she eyes became blurry. Then she was picked up by a blue color blur that she could tell it was Sonic was trying say something to her, but she couldn't make make out what he was saying. He was soon to joined by two UNSC Marines and saw in the distance a Pelican arriving before descending towards them. The back dragoness didn't know what was going on, but she felt hurt, worn out, and weak. She then began to close her eyes as she was loaded onto a stretcher and brought into the pelican with Sonic and olive green blur which could be the Spartan named Chief. Soon with no strength left in her to stay awake Cynder closed her eyes and everything went all black.