Chains

After evaluating the situation, searching through notes, Kraurion notices something.

"Hey, Silver, look at this!"

He points at the screen which shows a small house with several mountains in the background.

"..Wait, I un-did the zoom. Here!"

After a three stepped sequence of enlarging the part, a small cave entrance reveals itself. You can't see a lot, but you can see weak light emitting from the inside.

"We've had a job for the people in this house - repair some stuff and help them out, get a good price and some food for it and only now I notice that in these mountains there's another cave. It must be his!"

Kraurion smirks and continues

"We need to check this out!"

"Ofcourse, but where is it? Also, shouldn't we prepare or something?"

"The only thing you need packed and loaded is your muscles! Let's go right away!"

Kraurion rushes to the exit as I stop him:

"And what's with Crint?"

Kraurion cancels his charge and abruptly stops.

"...You're right. Let's look for Crint and tell him."

We go into the elevator which takes us upward. The red light flickers yet again as the metallic plaform moves skyward.

"Hey, Kraurion."

"Yeah?"

"Is...That your real name?"

Kraurion giggles and proclaims:

"Well, yes and no. My and Cyan's parents were dead since I can think. I never got to know them, so I never got to know my own name. Later on I saw a toy - a crazy robot. I wanted this thing so badly. One thing led to the other and I named myself after the toy."

That's actually very sad. I didn't know that. Come to think of it, Cyan never told me anything about her past, did she?

"I guess a similiar story comes from Crint's name, right?"

Kraurion looks away and sighs as he goes on:

"Yup. Actually, the same goes for everyone in the brigade. My sister's the only one with a last name because she loved the color of the sky so much that I named her cyan as a nickname once. After that, that was her name."

"You mean it is her name."

Kraurion still avoids looking me in the eye.

"Hey, I already know a lot but not everything about you, one of those things being your mantra. Repeat it, come on."

"...Kick reason to the curb-" He stammers as I interrupt him.

"You're not even trying. Come on, scream! Shout it out! Believe in yourself!"

"Kick reason to the curb and do the impossible!"

"Now that's the spirit. Now let's search for Crint and then for Braek!"

"You're right. You're absolutely right!"

Just as he says that, the elevator begins trembling.

"What the-" A falling stone disrupts Kraurions sentence.

"We should leave, now."

"Well, where?"

I get up on my rear legs, put my hooves between the two doors and rip them open, then proceed to punch a hole in the tree's bark and then dig through the ground with my bare hooves.

It only takes us about 30 seconds to reach the surface.

"Wow, that was some quick thinking there. Good job! But...What was that?!" Kraurion says as he turns around and - to his surprise - see the tree being chopped down by a huge, monstrous creature with 3 heads, one of each being a different animal - a chimera of sorts.

"Hey hey hey HEY! You dare to attack the Boomerang Shade Batallion's hideout?  Must be your unlucky day to stumble upon its great, tenacious leader! The one and only Kraurion!

Who the hell do you think I am!?"

He yells while stomping the ground repeatedly.

The chimera stands tall, almost as tall as the tree it hacked away with only a few strikes.

"Are you out of your mind? Stop blabbering and attack!"

"True men fight face to face and announce themselves properly!"

"And idiots get themselves killed while uttering nonsense. Move aside."

I slowly move forward onto the chimera. It's paws are those of a lion, just as one of its heads is while two of the other heads are the ones of snakes.

"Dear fellow, you don't look like the kind that can be reasoned and while you're quite interesting, I will beat you up now. We kind of needed that elevator, you know."

I say and jump into the air and charging forward onto the chimera, punching it right between the eyes.

The damage is clear - the beast holds its wound with both paws while standing on its rear legs and thus opens up for a follow up.

"You're wide open, you know that?" I proclaim as I jump again, this time kicking the monster into the stomach, following up with a flurry of punches that make the creature fall over in defeat.

"That was easier than I thought. Well, that's over."

"It isn't." Kraurion says.

"Could you stay in character just for five seconds please? You're really confusing me with your changes of heart you know that?" I hissed at Kraurion without bothering to turn around.

"How about you stop talking and turn around instead?!" He dictates. I do as he says and see the whole other half of the forest in the distant ablaze. Dozens of these creatures I just beat roam around, burning and destroying everything.

"Wh...What?" I yell as I realize the implications of the situation at hand.

"We can't go back now I guess. Our elevator's done for. Let's go directly for Braek's base, I bet this is his doing." Kraurion commands with a straight face.

"And just leave this all behind? What about Crint?"

"Do you seriously think he survived this? You could manage one of these easily, yeah, but if three or more attack you, what then, huh!?" He screams and turns around, with tears in his eyes.

I stop for a second, just...Realizing.

"...I didn't know him at all. I'm sorry."

"It's fine. This monster is going to pay for that!"

That was the last I would hear from him before he just started moving after a while. I follow him, not knowing what will come or what can happen.