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Chapter 14: Deadly Blizzard

Dragon Realms, Uncharted System

March 6, 2204

1412 Hours

Northern Regions of Dante's Freezer

"Damn it all..." Spyro muttered as the snow increased and covered him as he tried to advance. The snow was beginning to fall at an increasing rate and it was cold...

After Spyro had left the crashed Nighthawk, he had traveled away from it and had gone through a fortress. He had encountered a few Grublins and Orcs but not too many. A few Apes also got in his path and were similar to Cynder's Ape forces but they were just as easy to dispatch as they were 3 years ago.

As Spyro trotted through the snow he heard familiar sounds- gunfire. With renewed vigor he dashed through the snow, his path leading him down a passage running parallel to a fortress wall and a huge chasm.

Spyro saw just ahead of him there were several figures standing amongst the snow riddled areas. Even as the snow fall dramatically increased and clouded his vision, he could make out 4 Marines standing in the snow, firing their rifles from behind snow barriers they had erected.

A few native soldiers roared and charged them. Being skeletons, rifle rounds caused them little in the way of pain so they kept coming until the rounds cut their bones in half, cutting a leg or an arm.

One got close to their barriers and swung a sword at a Marine. The Marine leapt back, landing in the snow. The Marine fired a shotgun at the skeleton soldier, blowing its torso apart and causing the creature to fall to into the snow. Even without legs, it kept at it. It took a fellow Marine to step over and step on the skull to halt it.

Spyro rushed over as fast as he could, the snow and winds slowing him down. Spyro managed to regroup with them and the winds started to calm down.

"You Spyro?" One of the Marines asked.

"Yeah!"

"Sergeant Darmens, Marine Recon!"

"I heard you had wounded, where are they?"

"We got separated from the Lieutenant and they are somewhere around here. I don't know if any wounded would have survived, our drop ships haven't returned and the one sent to evac us never came."

Spyro cringed, remembering the fallen Nighthawk that had left just earlier.

"Looks like there's a storm brewing!" One of the Marines called out. Spyro looked up and saw a huge storm cloud hovering almost above them. It what was probably causing these erratic storms. However, once it was over them, the storm would get much worse.

"We have to move to shelter, c'mon!" Spyro declared, ushering the Marines to follow. They did and Spyro lead them down a path he remembered from 3 years ago. If he was correct, they'd end up in a passageway that lead through the mountain. It should provide perfect cover from a storm until help could get these guys out of here.

True to what he suspected, they arrived at the tunnel and entered. They came into what looked like a mess hall, tables littering the area and light coming through holes in the roof. The floor was still wooden, but a bit of snow had drifted in and coated it in a light layer of frost.

The Marines sat at the tables and some of them removed their helmets, their bulky winter clothing looking wet from the recent action.

"So... what did you guys find out here?" Spyro asked, trying to get to the bottom of the whole thing.

"The Lieutenant was off finding that out when we got separated. If anyone knows, its him." The Sergeant said as he placed his rifle on the table. Spyro grunted and started off towards the exit.

"Where you going?" The Sergeant asked.

"To find your Lieutenant." He simply said before leaving the room and off into the snow.

1423 Hours

Half a Mile South of the Marine LZ

"Why is it so freaking cold?" Aaron asked as he shivered, chilled winds and snow slapping against him. Zephyr and Krypto both lifted their wings to shield themselves and Aaron did the same.

They continued down through some more snow, Zephyr shooting nervous glances to the storm clouds above. Krypto kept his cool, eyeing the next region. He even walked in front of Aaron and Zephyr to shield them from the winter blast. Saying nothing, but noticing, they kept going.

They finally came to where the smoke was coming from. It was a downed Nighthawk.

"Looks like these guys didn't make it..." Aaron said as he walked over and put a paw on one of the frozen corpses.

"Good riddance..." Zephyr heard Krypto comment as Krypto started off in another direction.

They sighed but kept going, Zephyr shooting nervous and sort of angry glances at Krypto for his earlier comment.

"What's that sound?" Aaron asked as a sort of howling sound filled the path they were on. The path in question was a straight gap in the snow bluffs, trees and rocky cliffs running parallel to the path. The path went straight to what looked like an abandoned fortress.

"Sounds like..." Zephyr said as he tried to remember the sounds.

"Apes?" Aaron asked while scanning the surroundings. Suddenly, a stick of dynamite landed in the snow in front of them, Krypto and Zephyr eying it curiously while Aaron backed off a bit.

"Ah man, it's an ambush!" Aaron called out just before the stick detonated, covering both Krypto and Zephyr in melted snow and debris. Krypto, being closer to the stick, sustained a minor burn on his arm and roared out in pain, now searching for his attackers.

Zephyr whipped the snow from his face and Aaron readied himself as Apes leapt out from the snowline, armor and swords clanging as they prepared for the attack.

"Ah snap!" Aaron called out.

Krypto glared and used his tail to smack away the lead Apes, sending them back into the banks.

"Not these guys again!" Zephyr said while smacking one with his arm, causing it to turn a bit then using his hind legs to kick it away. Aaron lit up a trio with his fire breath, the area being illuminated with his fiery attack.

A larger Ape emerged, swinging a sword at them.

"Don' let them escape yous guys!" He called out, leaping out to meet them. Krypto silenced him with a good fireball which caught the creature ablaze and sent him into the snow. The remaining Apes turned to flee.

"What kind of fighters run?!" Krypto snarled.

"Never mind them, let's go!" Aaron said. They both ran off with him as they continued to the fortress. As they went, the skies were churning and turning darker and darker with each passing second. Aaron caught an illumination up in the skies above. It looked like a dragon. It stared down at him and he saw piercing yellow eyes. He grabbed his head as he felt those eyes split his head and enter his mind.

The other two stopped and looked at him.

"This is no time for a headache..." Krypto said looking at Aaron grasp his head. The pain subsided and Aaron shook it off, turning his attention back to Krypto.

"I'm fine, let's just go..." He said. They watched him run ahead of them and Krypto and Zephyr both shot glances to each other before continuing.

1444 Hours

Northern Regions of Dante's Freezer

The soft tak sounds of automatic fire kept Spyro along the path. He had to find out what were the Dark Master's forces doing down here... why they were interested in here... why the Apes were back and just how the Dark Master was planning to bring about the Final Solution.

He had to reach where the Lieutenant was and learn what his team had found out. Even with the temperature dropping he had to still do it. He saw something up ahead and dove into the snow nearby, his head and eyes poking through to see what they were.

He saw a few Apes, beaten on the ground. There were a few creatures nearby, some of which Spyro had never seen before. They were encased in a black bulky armor. In fact, he wondered if there was anything underneath that black armor that reminded him of a crystal. One of them grabbed an Ape by the neck and stabbed it through with its sword. The other simply stomped atop the other Ape and walked off.

The black dragon from before landed nearby and inspected the scene with a smile.

"Good... my Master will be pleased... the Marines here are doomed... as is the Marines and Dragons in that city... all we have to do is wait..." With that the Dragon took off into the skies.

"Who is his master?" Spyro asked, eyeing the dragon as he ascended into the sky.

As the dragon went up farther Spyro slowly left his cover in the snow and walked off towards a nearby structure and slowly approached, hearing gunfire in the distance.

As Spyro entered the new structure he saw several skeleton soldiers nearby. These locals were frozen in a state of war supposedly and now had been thawed. They were essentially skeletons with armor and some had beards... Spyro didn't even want to know how that was possible.

He tried to sneak around him but one of them snarled when it saw him and he growled as they yelled out and ran at him. Spyro leapt down and bit the handle of a spear and snapped it in half as it was swung at him. A sword followed just as quickly and Spyro had to flap his wings to propel himself back to avoid it.

More came, including one with an axe like weapon. Spyro used his ice to freeze the soldier and flicked his tail to shatter the creature. Another hissed and threw a spear at Spyro. Spyro, occupied with kicking a soldier in the groin, was struck with the spear on his arm, near the wound he had taken from the Lakador weapon just days before.

Spyro yelled out in pain as it shattered his scales and entered his flesh, blood droplets flying from his wound and onto the snow. Spyro roared out and another creature came in with a sword and brought it down in a stabbing motion. Spyro moved himself to avoid, but it still shattered a piece of his chest scales and sliced a cut into his chest as a result. Small trickles of blood came from his golden chest and Spyro yelled out in pain. He backed off, panting.

He felt weak... from the cold and the wounds. They came once more swords and axes prepared for strike.

Spyro sealed his eyes and focuses his energy. A column of fire formed around him and Spyro started to float into the air as energy flowed around him and the snow beneath him melted.

The soldiers charged at him even though this was occurring... a fatal mistake.

Spyro unleashed the wave of fire, its superheated fumes consuming the soldiers and blowing them away. The charred soldiers lay in the snow, their armor scorched and the snow around Spyro gone, bare ground remaining.

Steam rose from Spyro and he opened his eyes. The spear handle that belonged to the spear that had been lodged in his arm had vaporized, but the spear tip itself remained dug into his arm. He tried to remove it, but then noticed trickles of blood coming out as he did so. He chose to let it remain, for he was too far from help to do otherwise. If he removed it, he could bleed to death.

He coughed and continued on, limping as a spike of pain shot through him from the spear inside his arm. As he went, the chilled winds slapped against him and he shivered as the heat from the Fire fury faded away. He tried to warm his body internally with fire but it didn't work. Even with him having control over ice, he was no Ice Dragon.

The clouds above were really starting to churn snowfall steadily increasing and the winds once again picking up. Spyro ignored the chilled winds and continued through the snow. He passed into an open area and the full force of the oncoming storm hit him. He was blown back several feet as high winds slapped against him. His wings didn't help either by being out. They only served to catch the wind and acted like sails on a boat, sending him backwards into the snow.

He tried to fight but his limbs were numb from the cold. His wounds had also taken a lot of frozen blast, causing them to fail and he couldn't feel any part of his body. Even so, he found himself dragging himself forward, the howling winds slapping against him. He looked up and saw a Nighthawk drop ship pass overhead, search lights patrolling the ground nearby. He was so covered in snow at this point the search light didn't touch him. The drop ship passed on by and the angry clouds of the blizzard consumed the sky and his vision was obscured by snow.

Spyro made out several figures coming towards him though. At first he thought they were Marines... but then... then he saw the belonged to Apes. A lot of Apes at that. They howled a victory yell and walked closer to the purple dragon as he saw in the snow. Spyro's vision cut out.

1512 Hours

Northern Regions of Dante's Freezer

"This is useless, we can't find him!" Aaron called out in the howling winds.

"I can't see anything, there's too much snow!" Zephyr said in reply. The blizzard was almost at full strength, snow slapping in their faces and super chilled winds moving across the area. The winds were so powerful they had Aaron and Zephyr trapped in the snow, unable to move. Krypto walked over, fighting the winds and grabbed both of them. He lead them to a small tunnel network and they sat inside, both of them shivering.

Krypto set a fire ablaze on a wooden table nearby and they sat near it. Zephyr looked to be alright, his fur kept him warm. Aaron, even though being a fire dragon, his internal systems could withstand extreme heat, not extreme cold! He shivered and parts of his scales looked blue in color. He sat next to the fire, shivering.

Krypto shook a bit of ice off of himself and walked over into the tunnel they had entered. It looked like a huge feast hall, as did most of the areas they had been to. It was fairly large and he could finally flex his winds inside. He brought Aaron and Zephyr inside and they sat next to another table that Krypto had set ablaze. Aaron was lying on the ground, shivering and looking pale.

"Great... now how are we going to get out of this? Spyro's nowhere to be found, there's a group of humans somewhere here and Aaron's sick." Zephyr said as he sighed.

Krypto remained silent. He didn't want to admit it, but they needed human help if they were going to get Aaron and Spyro out of this... wherever Spyro was...

Humans had medicine... and magic could only go so far... Krypto could fly them out of here, but the winds were far too strong for them to go back outside. They had to remain here until the storm let up.

Aaron was falling asleep, Zephyr lying nearby to help warm him up with his fur. His body was extremely cold. Krypto lay nearby, watching the fire and thinking. They should have checked that crashed human ship for medicine... they were too quick to leave. If Aaron caught something, they'd be in trouble. Rather then being helpful, he'd just be dead weight to them.

Krypto suddenly craned his head as he heard a sound other then them inside the room. He saw nothing but stood up anyway.

"Stay here... watch Aaron..." Krypto said to Zephyr and walked off towards the source. The area where it came from was on the other side of a few tables and was near a doorway that lead to another large room like the one they were in.

Slowly walking to the door Krypto halted and sniffed the air. The cold temperatures masked whatever scents were in the air and he sighed before walking into the hallway that conjoined the two rooms. As he entered the second, he saw it was almost empty. The wall opposite of him had colomns that suggested they were an entrance to the fort, but was boarded up. Areas where boards didn't cover were areas where light and snow flooded in, the small flakes gathering in a small corner of the room. The howling winds were sounding off throughout the room and Krypto looked around to check if there was anyone in there besides him.

He didn't see anyone but heard some sounds nearby and scanned the room again. He bore his teeth and slowly walked, noticing a doorway leading to yet another fairly large room to his left. He slowly walked over to the door and heard small little skittering sounds in the snow. He scanned around once more, trying to isolate the sound. It wouldn't have been so hard if the wind wasn't constantly howling and filling the room with such an unnecessary noise.

He finally saw that it was a piece of wood that scraping against the wall that was generating the alleged skittering sound. He sighed, sort of disappointed that it was nothing but satisfied that it was nothing. He turned around and slowly headed back to Zephyr and Aaron.

Without warning, a creature latched itself onto Krypto's neck and brought its teeth down. The sharp teeth penetrated his scales and entered his flesh, ilecting a howl from Krypto.

Krypto grabbed the creature with his for-paw and threw it against a wall. It was a strange Grublin, its skin being white and it wearing camouflage that masked its appearance in the white snow that covered the floors. It was also smaller then the average Grublin, being about one forth regular size.

Krypto snarled and breathed fire at the creature, engulfing it in flames. More screeched and grabbed Krypto. They brought their teeth in and bit Krypto across his body. Krypto howled out, attracting the attention of Zephyr who raced in and saw the creatures. They in turn saw him and leapt out at him. Krypto flapped his wings, displacing them and breathed fire onto them.

As they neared Zephyr, he kicked them with his hind legs and set them into the wall and into Krypto's prepared flame attack.

"Damn these bastards..." Krypto said as he felt the wounds on him. Small trails of blood oozed from the wounds and Krypto whipped them clean.

They heard more sounds down the hall and Krypto motioned for Zephyr to go back to Aaron. Krypto ran off down to the room to the left and saw that there was yet again another doorway to his left, leading to yet again, another large room. However in this room, there was a sort of throne and there were stairs leading to a catwalk that ran along the wall's length, serving as a second floor. There were small slits in the walls some sort of defense to be placed. Up on the second floor there were a few Apes who spotted Krypto and howled out.

Krypto propelled himself at the Apes, smashing into them and crushing them into the wall. He snarled and kicked away from the wall, noting a passageway leading to more halls in front of him. He heard several other sounds from it including what he thought sounded like suppressed gunfire. There were humans in those tunnels. He wanted to just leave them, but knew that they probably needed their help. Reluctantly he walked down the halls and saw that there were indeed humans.

The humans were entrenched in a position across from him. The room he was in was split, two balconies on either side, on his balcony there were Apes, on the opposing, Marines. The two balconies were joined by a small bridge that led across. In the middle, there was a chasm that looked as if it went on forever.

The Apes on his balcony saw him and screamed out, leaping on him and trying to slash swords at him. Krypto, remembering his last encounter, slashed his tail and smashed them over the edge of the balcony and into the bottomless pit. The Marines saw this and crossed the chasm. It was a small group of about 6 of them. One of them had a red cross on his helmet- a Medic.

"You... Medic... come with me." Krypto said and pointed to the one with the cross on his helmet. The Marine looked at him odd but followed, as did the others.

"Do you have medicine?" Krypto asked.

"Just some penicillin and some morphine." The Medic responded. Krypto frowned. He at least knew some things about medicine produced by humans. Penicillin might help, but morphine was useless.

Krypto lead them back to the room where Aaron and Zephyr were. Aaron was shivering near the fire and Zephyr was standing watch for more of those creatures. Zephyr had killed 7 of them in Krypto's absence.

"Him, he's getting sick." Krypto said and pointed to Aaron. The Medic took a second before jogging over to Aaron's side and feeling his scales.

"I don't know much about dragon anatomy so I can't for sure say what's wrong with him. Though I will tell you this, if we don't warm him up he could die. I don't think a dragon's skin is supposed to feel this cold." The Medic said.

"Can't you do something?" Zephyr asked.

"I'm no doctor, just a field Corpsmen. I don't know much about viruses or bacteria. I could give him the penicillin though... but right now I think he needs to warm up gradually and also something to eat might do some good." The Medic said.

"We could cook Henson." One of the Marines joked.

"Knock it off Mark..." Another said. Krypto for a second considered the Marine's offer and looked at them. It wasn't a bad idea to eat them but he knew that it wouldn't end well if he did so he looked around. The blizzard was raging with even more ferocity then before. A trip outside would be useless.

Suddenly Krypto remembered the dead Grublins they had killed earlier. He walked over, fetched some of them and presented them to the Humans.

"Damn those guys are nasty." A Marine said.

"Least its better then your cooking." Another said with a chuckle.

"You know what, fine! See what I care if you don't get food next time."

The Medic ignored the Marine's comments and grabbed a bowl lying nearby and grabbed a handful of snow and dumped it in. Krypto heated it up and the snow melted into water. The water started to boil and they inserted some of the Grublins in and they put some on the fire to cook.

"Doesn't look like this storm will let up anytime soon." A Marine Sergeant said while looking out to the cave entrance that lead into the room.

"Can't you radio for a pick up?" Krypto asked, taking some of the Grublins out of the water and slicing them with his talons.

"Communication's been shit since we got here. Hell we don't even know where about 300 of our men are. Plus this storm doesn't help anything either." The Sergeant said while picking up a rock and chunking it across the room.

"Why did Spyro have to go off like that..." Zephyr said while biting into some of the cooked meat.

"You're looking for Spyro?" The Sergeant asked.

"Yeah, that is why we're here." Krypto responded.

"We ran into him earlier. He was the one who lead us into here for protection against the storm."

"Do you know where he is?"

"He left a while ago to locate the rest of our recon group. We lost track of our Lieutenant and hooked up with these two Marines in here. We don't know where Spyro ran off to."

1833 Hours

[System Error]

The air was cold, too cold. Why couldn't it just be warm? No, it always had to be cold. Go figure... Spyro coughed and opened his eyes. He tried to move but noticed his arms wouldn't move. He growled and tried to move his legs. They were non-responsive as well. Spyro shook off his grogginess and finally noticed that his muzzle had a guard on it. His legs were all chained to the wall and his wings were tied together.

He was in a room with brick walls and small arch-like windows near the ceiling to allow light to come in.

The Apes must have captured him... He tried to break the chains but he was too weak... and pain droned from his wounds. There was dried blood on his chest. It came from his neck which suggested his neck wound had opened up. The bandage across his stomach also had splotches of red on them.

The spear tip was also still embedded into his arm. A good inch to two inches of the spear were lodged in there, a deep cut. The spear was probably the only thing holding the blood in there. Regardless, he felt extremely light headed.

"Ah... you're awake..." Spyro looked up and saw Fang walk up. He smiled at the restrained dragon and placed a talon underneath Spyro's chin, raising his face to meet his own.

"Such a disappointment..." Spyro tried to say something but the muzzle muffled his words. That and the fact that he was far too weak to say anything meant that nothing came out.

"No need to talk... I already know your question." Fang let go of Spyro's head, allowing it to droop down.

"What are we doing here? Where's the Dark Master? Why are the Apes back? I assure you, answers will come... as for the Dark Master... he is off doing much greater business. Don't worry. He'll be here to meet you shortly." With that Fang started to the exit but halted.

"Do whatever you please to him, just don't kill him." He said to the Ape guards who snickered and cracked their knuckles. Fang took off into the sky and Spyro dreaded at what they were going to do. It wasn't going to be pretty.

The first one walked over and punched Spyro in the chest. It howled in delight as the other smacked Spyro across the face. A small trickle of blood came from his mouth. The Apes both howled in approval and hit him repeatedly. Spyro coughed and blood splattered the floor below. One grabbed a sword and used the butt of the weapon to jab into Spyro's chest, causing him to howl out in pain.

Spyro started to slip from consciousness once more but before he did, he saw one of the Apes get hurled from his position and smash into a wall. A large Lion let out a roar before ramming his head into the Ape. The second Ape yelled out as an arrow hit him in his back, piercing his armor. Spyro managed to muster up enough strength to see the figure of a Human Female walk to him, the Lion near by. Her exact details were shrouded by the light filtering in from the doorway she stood in and Spyro finally lost the last of his strength and his head drooped downward as he lost consciousness.

End of Chapter 14

Spyro and other appropriate characters belong to Sierra Entertainment

Krypto belongs to Kryptangel92 of DeviantART

Aaron belongs to Dragonfreak1112 of DeviantART

Zephyr belongs to Dragonheart666666 of DeviantART

The Two New Characters belongs to someone other then me :P Will say later XD

Marines and Fang belong to me