Firetail gaped in complete awe as the largest living thing he had ever seen flew out of the portal. The titan was at least two hundred yards tall. It landed on the ground, letting out a roar so loud that it blew Shadow himself backward. Shadow smiled, and said, “Hello Gavalin. Nice to see you again.”

“I wouldn’t say the same thing of you,” Gavalin said. His voice was deep and rasping, filled with the power of age. Gavalin flew forward, his massive wings blowing huge clouds of dust into the air. Shadow transformed into a much bigger version of himself and swung his talon. Gavalin grabbed it, and the two dragons began fighting.

“We need some backup,” Crystal said, watching the two dragons exchange fierce blows.

“I got it!” Shuriken said. “We need to call in the emergency attack force.”

“Agreed,” Kryptonite said. “Anyone who can help needs to now.”

Gila and Goldfleck both sent messages to their respective tribes, calling them to battle. Hardwire activated a beacon on his body after calling the emergency attack force into action.

Each moment became tenser as they all waited for the reinforcements. The loud roars from the fight combined with the eerie and melancholy sounds emitted from the massive tentacled monster in the portal put everyone on edge.

Eventually, Firetail finally spotted the Avis and Reptilik dragons. They flew from two different directions.

“We’d better stop them from fighting each other,” Gila said.

“Definitely,” Goldfleck said. The two leaders flew over to the dragons to inform them of what was going on.

“Over there!” Kryptonite shouted. Firetail turned and saw an awe-inspiring sight. A fleet of huge, levitating warships was moving toward the intense battle.

“Let’s go,” Hardwire said. The group, including Spinner and Stryker, flew to the biggest ship. Spinner flew around it while the rest of the dragons landed on the deck.

“Hold it right there!” Someone shouted. Firetail turned to see an armored dragon pointing some sort of projectile weapon at them.

“Hey!” Kryptonite said. “Who do you think you’re talking to!”

The dragon turned to look at her and then froze, shocked. He then quickly dropped into what appeared to be a bow of some kind. “I’m sorry princess! I didn’t realize it was you.”

Princess? Firetail thought. Who would have known?

“These are all my friends,” Kryptonite said, waving to the rest of the group. “We have important news. Where is my mother?”

“Well, she’s in the main council room, but she said not to-”

“Thank you,” Kryptonite said. She walked past the soldier and into a doorway. “Hardwire, can you follow me?”

“What about me!” Crystal asked.

“I need you to watch over the rest of us,” Kryptonite said.

“Fine,” Crystal said.

“Ooh!” Stryker said. “I have a great idea!”

“What is it?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, I’d be interested to know how important each of you is within your tribes,” Stryker said.

“That sounds okay,” Rainbow said.

“I’ll go first, for Kryptonite,” Crystal said. “Her mother is the queen, so she’s the princess.”

“Oh…” Slangfang said. “Cool. What about you?”

“I’m part of a different aristocratic family,” Crystal said.

“I’m Kryptonite’s cousin,” Rainbow said. “What about you, Shuriken?”

“Us Horinizonics don’t really have families the way you dragons do,” Shuriken said, “but we do have a hierarchy. I’m a warrior, and Hardwire is a prince.”

“Cool,” Firetail said. “I’m also a fighter for my tribe.”

“Same here,” Slangfang said. “Although Gila is my semi-cousin.”

“I guess I’d be considered as important in my tribe,” Stryker said. “Especially since I’m the last living member of it.”

“Wait, really?” Firetail asked.

“Yep,” Stryker said.

“Wow,” Slangfang said. “Do you ever feel lonely?”

“Yeah, but usually I don’t think about it,” Stryker said. “It helps.”

“Well, now we wait,” Firetail said.

“Yep,” Crystal said. “Now we wait.”

…

Kryptonite

Kryptonite rushed through the corridors of the battleship. She stopped right outside the main council room. She took a few deep breaths and then knocked on the door. A guard opened it and peered outside. He looked at Kryptonite and then ducked back inside.

The guard spoke in muffled words and then opened the door. Kryptonite hurried inside, moving over to her mother.

“Where have you been?” Queen Pyrite asked sternly. “What happened with your class?”

“Well, we-” Kryptonite started.

“We lost all contact completely with your class and the museum,” Queen Pyrite interrupted. “What happened!?”

“Well, it started with this bomb…”

…

“And that’s everything?” Pyrite asked wearily.

“Yep, pretty much,” Rainbow said.

“We all know the plan?” Kryptonite asked. Everyone nodded.

“Well then,” Pyrite said. “We fight.” A nearby guard looked at the queen. She nodded, and the guard ran off to tell the crew.

“We meet again, Shadow,” Pyrite whispered. With a slight shift in the ship’s momentum, the ship turned to fight Shadow. As one, they started blasting away at Shadow. Gavalin had moved away, confused.

“Stryker, your turn!” Crystal said.

“Spinner, go!” Stryker said. Spinner nodded his massive head and flew out of his circle. He glided down towards Gavalin, who had been thoroughly confused by all the commotion against Shadow. Spinner stopped next to Gavalin, who was massive compared to Spinner.

Spinner then talked to Gavalin, presumably in the language of Titans. Gavalin listened, then spoke. Spinner replied. Gavalin nodded sagely and flew with Spinner to the boat.

"You art participating in this battle against the monster, Shadow?" Gavalin asked.

"Yes," Stryker said. "It is nice to see your return, King of the Titans."