I don’t know Spyro’s precise age, so we’re just going to assume he’s about 12.
Chapter 17: Ripto’s Rage Dragon’s Lair (Play “Mt.
Lavalava” from Paper Mario.) Dungeon 5: Dragon’s Lair Mission: Find Ripto and stop his dragon.
The first corridor of this cavern was pretty straightforward.
Small Fireslugs fell from the ceiling, but the group was able to wipe them out in one hit.
Already, they could feel the rising temperatures as they drew further, thin, red mist floating about the caves.
They reached a small room with a little pool of lava, pouring in from a smaller lavafall from the left wall.
They took the right path around the magma and passed a short hallway to a wider, taller room, full of mostly lava down below.
They stood along the edge of their foothold and overlooked the room, and the ground beneath Dib’s feet suddenly crumbled.
“Waaaahh-” Luvbi quickly used a wind gust to blow him back on the foothold before he fell.
“Thank you.” “Yeah, let’s not stand too close.” Ava suggested.
The kids went across a bridge to another cliffside, coming to a part where the road split in two.
Straight ahead was a rock-made doorway, while the right led to a chasm of lava, between them and another foothold, with little fireballs jumping in and out of the lava.
They decided to head through the door first, and entered a darker corridor where a few Fireslugs roamed around.
They wiped them out easily, but further ahead were two Rhynocs wearing steel, heat resistant armor.
They blew flames at the kids using flamethrowers, so the operatives kept their distance as Ava leaped over, kicked off the flamethrowers, and landed behind the Rhynoc.
On its back was a temperature-control thermometer, so Ava proceeded to lay blows against it until it broke.
The armor came off the Rhynoc as it panted from the heat, and Ava knocked it out in one hit.
The second Rhynoc kept its flamer trained on them, but Spyro was able to run behind it, seeing the thermometer had a blue glow to it.
Spyro blew flames against it, and it soon overheated before the armor came off, releasing a Cube Wisp.
Spyro rammed and knocked the Rhynoc out before the group returned to the larger room.
They waited until each in the row of fireballs were out of the magma, at a reasonable height.
Once they were, “CUBE!” Nigel trapped the group of fireballs inside of cubes, creating platforms for them to jump across.
They were rather small, so they had to watch their footing (except for Luvbi, who flew as always), but they made it across safely.
They crossed around a pathway and soon reached a new door, coming to another darker tunnel.
An Armored Rhynoc charged with its sword ready, but the kids dodged as Ava rolled behind and struck its thermometer.
The Rhynoc spun around in attempt to slice her, but missed, and Dib was now behind the Rhynoc as he pounded the thermostat and broke it off.
The Rhynoc was exposed and sweated with heat, allowing Nigel to wipe it out with a N.I.N.S.T.A.R..
They trekked further as flaming bats, called Fire Keese, flapped around and tried to burn them, but Ava swung her swords rapidly and dealt them away.
There was a small ledge they easily climbed to pass through a short hallway.
“Heeff…heeff…” Kweeb gasped for breath suddenly, the little alien sweating.
“What’s wrong, Kweeb?” Ava asked.
“Dry air… not good for the little guy’s lungs.” Kweeb shook it off.
“It’s okay, though.
Let’s keep moving.” They entered a small room with their slim, narrow path; surrounded by magma, led to a locked door.
There was no other way to go except for the small tunnel on their left, where a magma river poured in.
“Prithee, me guesses I shalt handle this.” Luvbi offered half-forcefully, rolling her eyes.
The angel flew into the tunnel, which was small enough so she was dangerously close to the lava.
From the sides, geysers of fire shot from holes, forcing Luvbi to slow down.
She reached the end, where the Small Key was seated unguarded on a pedestal, so she proceeded to pick it up.
Unsurprisingly, the pedestal sank, and lava poured from the ceiling, forcing her to retreat as it flowed through the tunnel.
The team entered the locked door quickly before the room flooded.
In this next passage, they passed down a short flight of stairs and reached another short room with several thin stalagmites sitting in a pool of magma.
On their right was another locked door, and across the room, by the ceiling, was another cave.
Luvbi was about to fly up on her own, but failed to notice the chi-blocking symbols on the walls as she immediately lost flight.
“Waaah-” Dib quickly grabbed her before she fell in the magma.
Luvbi looked back and gave him an aggravated look while Dib grinned.
Starting from their foothold and leading around the stalagmites was a tiny pathway, much too small for them to walk on.
Kweeb could walk on it, of course, but they suspected Nigel would have to come along, too.
Along the wall behind them was an equally small mouse hole, so Kweeb leapt off Ava’s shoulder and went inside to find a small room with a Cherry Wisp, stuck under a grain-sized pebble by its tentacle.
“How do we get ourselves in these messes…” it squeaked.
Kweeb smiled and shoved the pebble off, setting the pink Wisp free.
It excitedly flew out and shot up Nigel’s nose.
“SHRINK!” Nigel shrunk down to Kweeb’s 1-inch height, and the two began their venture across the tiny paths.
It led them very close to the lava, and they had to keep their balance jumping across small platforms.
They eventually reached the right-side wall as the path led a little upwards.
They made it below the tunnel, which was still very high up at their height, but several cliffside ledges, each far scattered apart, on left and right, led up there.
Nigel held onto Kweeb and used his G.R.A.P.P.L.U.H.
to haul their selves up each ledge, before successfully reaching the tunnel.
The temperature seemed to rise in this tunnel as Nigel began to pant heavily.
Kweeb was right: the dry air really was hard to breathe at this height.
It felt like this cave was made from poison broccoli, only a thousand times more hot.
Along their way, Fireslugs dropped from the ceiling, and while normally easy to a regular sized person, their small sizes could let them be killed by simple contact with the flaming bugs.
And because of the lack of oxygen, they couldn’t really fight well, so they thought it best to move around the slugs; since the bugs were still too slow to chase them.
They eventually came to a large gap that went across the floor; crossable for a normal-sized person, but much too big for them.
Along the left wall, they found another mouse hole (assuming mice can actually survive here), so they decided to limp inside.
The walls were red from the magma, and the two had to navigate carefully around small pits of magma.
They reached a room with an Extendo M.I.C.R.O.B.E., so Kweeb used his remote control to activate it.
They guided the tiny robot outside, and the M.I.C.R.O.B.E.
was able to stretch up and chop the eyes off the Fireslugs, disabling them as they dissolved away.
There was a particular Fireslug sitting along the right wall, not moving from its spot, so they limped over for the robot to behead it (er, be-eye it).
They discovered another secret tunnel, and inside was a Bridger M.I.C.R.O.B.E., which they brought over and used to make a bridge across the gap.
They soon reached the end of the cave, which was guarded by an enormous Armored Rhynoc.
The key hung from his belt, but it was much too big to carry at their sizes, and the Rhynoc looked rather intimidating.
They stayed to the side of the room to avoid its vision, but saw the armored monster guarded a Spike Wisp capsule.
Between the monster’s feet was another M.I.C.R.O.B.E., this time designed like a spring.
They quietly limped under the beast so Kweeb could activate the robot.
They then guided back behind the monster and faced up at its thermometer.
Nigel helped himself onto the Springer M.I.C.R.O.B.E., and the robot charged a few seconds before sending Nigel sky-high (at his size).
The tiny Brit mustered enough strength to grab the thermostat’s ledge, and slip into its tiny opening.
Inside the cooled device, Nigel began throwing grenades around until the thermometer was destroyed.
Nigel came tumbling out to the ground as the Rhynoc’s armor came off, the massive metal making earsplitting bangs to the tiny operatives’ ears.
The Rhynoc began to sweat, and Nigel and Kweeb hurried away quickly before the guard fell backward and broke the Wisp’s capsule.
The Pink Wisp angrily smacked the fallen rhino (his squishy tentacle didn’t hurt much) before it flew into Nigel’s miniscule body.
Nigel poofed back to normal size, shoving Kweeb away in the process, before grabbing the Small Key and lifting his little friend onto his shoulder.
“SPIKE!” He became a ball of spikes as he rolled along the ceiling, down the tunnel, and over the pit of magma and stalagmites before dropping down to his friends.
They entered the locked door to another slight thin hall, where stone stairs led upward.
They were ambushed by smaller armored Rhynocs, which Dib proceeded to beat, while Spyro heated them with flames, to break off their armor.
Nigel then finished them with the C.A.T.I.F.I.E.R..
They were on a cliff over a small lake of lava.
Dib spotted the dark-blue stalactite in the distance, so he hit a Golf Bomb over to destroy the stalactite.
The Wisp came flying over and into Nigel’s body.
“CUBE!” He conjured some cubes over the lava, but there were only seven.
The group had to stay on the cubes as more began to spawn, one at a time, while the back-most cube would vanish.
The cubes made random turns around stalagmites, and fireballs would jump out of lava and land on random parts.
Fire Keese attempted to push them off, but Ava cut them down before they could.
The cubes led into a tunnel, in which lava began to pour in behind them.
The lava thankfully didn’t catch up to their cubes, and they could get off on a path and keep running.
The tunnel turned right, but lava continued to flood in, so the operatives ran.
They jumped gaps and dodged around lavafalls, then quickly ran up a spiral staircase as the cave began flooding.
The stairs ended, but there was a capsule containing a Green Wisp, with three balls circling below its body.
Nigel broke the Wisp free and absorbed its power.
“HOVER!” He began to softly raise skyward.
Dib, Ava, and Spyro held onto him while Luvbi flew on her own.
Despite the three’s weight, Nigel’s Hover form was not affected at all.
He maneuvered around Lava Bubbles (flame spirits) and kept ascending to escape the rising lava.
They were able to get up through a narrow hole at the top, setting foot on land as they watched the lava rise to the edge of the hole, where it stopped completely.
They viewed a very wide area of the cave where Rhynocs were stationed on high platforms, wielding sniper rifles.
“Let those other nerds have their magic and bows and arrows.” a Rhynoc remarked.
“Guns are the way to win wars, baby!” The operatives hid behind a rock and studied the situation.
“Pray, canst Kweeb do something to best them?” Luvbi asked.
“Huff… so… hot…” panted Kweeb.
“Apparently not.” Nigel said.
“Hey, it looks like the pack on that first Rhynoc is shaking.” Dib noticed.
“Might be a Wisp.” “Then let’s help it.” Nigel fired a V.I.S.S.I.L.E.
up and down at the Rhynoc, destroying it.
A Clear Wisp was freed, flying over to Nigel as the Rhynocs got more alert.
“CLEA—I mean… Clear.” Nigel whispered.
He turned invisible and walked into the snipers’ line of sight.
He could climb the next Rhynoc’s tower and knock him out, dropping another Clear Wisp to restore Nigel’s stealth.
The snipers looked to where their comrade fell, but could not detect the invisible operative.
The third Rhynoc’s tower had no ladder, so Nigel had to Wall Jump between two rock pillars to make it up and knock him out.
The fourth tower was the tallest and had no ladder, but Nigel could hide behind a tall pillar beside the tower and find a Hover Wisp.
Nigel levitated from behind the pillar and got behind the Rhynoc, doing a thrust to push the Rhynoc off to his doom.
With that, the team reunited and proceeded to a long, tall stairwell that seemed to lead out of the cave.
“So, I have a question.” Spyro said on their way up.
“If only one kid per planet can be in GKND, then why are Dib and Nigel both from Earth?” “Well, Dib isn’t technically an operative.” Nigel replied.
“He’s just working with us temporarily until we catch this Irken called Zim.” “Oh, really?” Dib looked away.
“Yeah, pretty much.” “Speaking of which, we haven’t really ran into Zim since Planet Secco.
You haven’t seen him, have you Spyro?” Nigel asked.
“Not as far as I can tell.
All Irkens look the same to me.” “Too bad Zim smashed Dib’s tracking device, huh?” Ava said.
“Y-Yeah.
Too bad for that.” Dib chuckled nervously.
Once at the end of the staircase, they were outside on an enormous platform in the middle of a volcano.
The platform looked as big as a football field.
The team looked ahead to see Ripto standing in the center with his back turned.
“Found him!” Ava pointed.
“Hey, Ripto!
Feel like giving up, yet?” Spyro asked.
Ripto turned around and smirked.
“So, Spyro, you and your little friends made it all the way here, huh?
Quicker than I thought.” “That’s right!
Now, hand us the Star and we’ll let you go easy.” Nigel demanded.
Ripto laughed.
“I don’t think so!
I know just who you are, Nigel Uno.
You’re the Tallests’ Number 1 on their list.
You’re pretty strong-willed, I hear.
But be that as it may, neither of you will be getting this Star.
But on the bright side, you’ve all arrived just in time for snack time!
And guess who’s hungry?
COME ON OUT, BIG BOY!” The six kids felt the ground shake.
Before their eyes, a dragon of tremendous size came flying out of the lava and onto the platform.
The dragon’s body was gray, had a rocky backside, and was as long as half the platform.
“AROOOOOOOOOO!” “Galactic Kids Next Door, meet my prized monster: Red Death!
His hard outer shell makes him indestructible and the perfect one for taking you down!” He hopped onto the dragon’s head and ran to its backside.
“Get ready, kiddies.
I’m going to CRUSH YOU!” (Play “Dogadon 2” from Donkey Kong 64!) Boss fight: Red Death The dragon took off into the air and circled over the platform.
It shot fireballs at the kids, who quickly dodged.
Nigel and Kweeb tried firing their blasters at the beast, but, as Ripto stated, his skin was rock-hard and impenetrable.
“Man, this guy’s hard to hit!” Kweeb said after several more shots.
“Wait!
If he’s hard on the outside, then what about his inside?” Dib asked.
“Yeah!
I bet if we attack his insides, we might be able to do some damage!” Ava replied.
“But how are we going to do that?” Nigel asked.
“No way I’m going in that thing!” Kweeb shouted.
“I bet I could get my Golf Bomb in there!” Dib figured as his backpack became a golf club.
“I don’t think so!” Ripto shouted as he shot a magic blast and destroyed the club.
“Aw, man!
It took hours to make that!” “Now, my dragon: destroy them!” The dragon shot a blue fireball at the operatives.
Spyro jumped in front and shot fire at the blue ball, which vanished and released a Cube Wisp that flew to Nigel.
“CUBE!” Nigel hopped into the air and landed with a quake.
A small rocket was knocked up out of the ground, which Spyro picked up in his mouth.
Red Death flew down and landed on the platform.
It opened its mouth and began to charge its flame.
“NOW, Spyro!” Nigel shouted.
The purple dragon fired the rocket into the big dragon’s mouth.
The dragon swallowed the rocket, which exploded in its stomach.
“GAH!
Curse you, Spyro!
How dare you hurt my dragon!
I’ll sue you for this!” Red Death lifted into the air.
The dragon backed up until it was hovering over the edge.
It took a deep breath and blew fire along the edge of the platform.
The fire became a wall, which then moved along the direction of the operatives.
The team looked around for a gap in the wall until Nigel noticed a green spot.
“Mayhap it is my turn.” Luvbi said as she took a huge breath of air and blew out the wall of fire.
Once it was gone, a Green Wisp came out where the green fire was and flew into Nigel.
Nigel ran over to Red Death, who was still flying over the edge.
“HOVER!” Nigel’s body slowly lifted into the air.
He slowly drifted over to Red Death and landed on its head.
Once on, he made his way over to Ripto, who shot fire blasts at the Brit in an attempt to knock him off, but failed.
Nigel made it to and delivered a few punches at Ripto before grabbing on to his scepter.
They engaged in tug-o-war, which merely ended with Ripto blasting Nigel off the dragon.
Nigel screamed as he was about to fall in the lava, but stopped when Spyro flew by and caught him on his back.
“Phew!
Thanks, Spyro!” “No problem!
Now, what do you say we give Ripto the old hot foot?” “Sounds great!” “Don’t get cocky now!
I still have one more trick up my sleeve!
Oh, Red Death!” The dragon landed on the platform and hopped up and down on it a few times.
The team felt the platform begin to shake and sink.
“HA HA HA!
In a few moments, you’ll be taking your well-deserved lava bath!
Enjoy!” “Thou forgetest I canst fly!” Luvbi taunted.
“Not for long!” Ripto said as he fired a spell at Luvbi and knocked her to the ground.
“AH!
My wing!
I canst not fly, anymore!” “We can take him!
Come on, Spyro!” Nigel exclaimed.
“You got it!” Spyro began flying after the larger dragon with Nigel on his back.
As Red Death was evading Spyro and Nigel, Ripto was firing shots at the two.
At the same time, Nigel was trying to hit Ripto with his S.H.O.O.T.E.R..
He fired a few shots at Ripto’s feet, making him lose balance and fall, but quickly grab on to the dragon’s side while still holding his scepter.
“Red Death: FINISH THEM!” Ripto ordered.
The dragon turned to face the two and opened its mouth, beginning to charge for a super flame.
“Oh yeah?
Try THIS!” Spyro took a deep breath and shot a ball of fire which went straight into the giant dragon’s mouth.
The dragon shut its mouth and swallowed it.
Ripto began to feel its body rumbling.
“Red Death?” Ripto said, worried.
In just seconds, the dragon puffed up and exploded, leaving a screaming Ripto to fall and burn in the molten lava, along with the scepter.
The sinking platform the others were on immediately stopped.
(End song.) The Red Star rose out of the lava in one piece shortly after.
It flew over to Luvbi and sprinkled her, making her wings heal.
Afterwards, the Star shot up into the sky and back to the Star Sanctuary.
Spyro and Nigel landed back onto the platform.
“Whew!
That was close.” Nigel said.
“Pretty sweet flying, Spyro!” Kweeb complimented.
“Aw, it was nothin’.
That’s what we dragons do, after all!” “So, how do we get out of here?” Ava asked.
As if on cue, an archway with an image of the team’s ships rose out of the ground.
“The gods of Avalar smile upon us.” Kweeb shrugged.
“More like Bianca’s magic.” Spyro corrected.
“Wanna come with us, Spyro?” Nigel asked.
“Nah, no thanks.
Space adventures aren’t for me.” “We understand.” Nigel complied.
“But if you change your mind; we’ll come down and visit sometime.” “Be looking forward to it!” “ALL RIGHT!” Dib screamed enthusiastically.
“We got five outta the Seven Stars!
I can’t WAIT to see those Irkens-” He was silenced, as another piano fell on top of him.
Up above, the Vreedle Brothers were soaring overhead.
“We’re sorry, friend!” Octagon yelled.
“Better you than me.” Kweeb commented.
“Come on, let’s go.” Nigel said.
Dib helped himself out of the piano, making accordion sounds and movements, as they all headed through the archway portal.
From a distance, the mariachi band played their usual music.
“And so, the team and Spyro parted ways, and their adventure goes on.
Together, they headed back to the base to prepare for the next challenge that awaited.
What challenge may that be, you ask?
Find out next time when we-” The band leader stopped when they felt the ground shake.
In an instant, the platform sank the rest of the way into the lava and burned the mariachi band, as they shot up into the sky like rockets, screaming.