Lava simmered and bubbled around what had once been the Sorceress's Lair. Following the Forgotten Worlds' change to a democracy, the Sorceress's old palace had fallen under new, democratically-elected ownership. The lava-filled battle arena where the lizard had had her first throwdown with Spyro had mostly fallen into disuse. I say "mostly" because it did happen to be occupied once every so often.

If a Gnorc the size of two yetis and his scepter-wielding dinosaur friend barged in and demanded to hunker down in some unused lava pit, the denizens of the Forgotten Worlds certainly weren't going to stop them.

"Welcome to the latest meeting of the Enemies of Dragons summit!" Ripto announced in a booming voice... to the one other attendee. "Our topic of interest today is..." He flipped through some papers sitting on the box they'd dragged into the arena's center. "...'the Spyro problem.'

Gnasty Gnorc slammed his massive fist against the box. "Yeah! I froze all the big dragons in crystal twice! The Dragon Realms should be mine right now, but instead I got whooped by- by a hatchling." Flecks of spittle escaped his lips in his fury.

"I just don't understand it." Ripto's brow creased. "Dragonflies, fireflies... It's almost like he can beat me no matter what kind of flies I steal!"

"Hmm..." Gnasty looked pensive. "Maybe if you stole some horseflies-?"

"Gentlemen," cut in a voice.

"Huh?" Both bad guys spun around to find a large, hulking newcomer marching their way. That was weird. They hadn't had a new member attend since Grendor, and they'd kicked him out for being lame.

This new guy looked way more awesome, though. He was covered from head to toe in spiky metal armor, vents of steam erupted from his joints at regular intervals, and he carried around a huge scythe. Now that was final boss material.

"Ooh! Ooh!" Gnasty bounced in excitement, causing the floor to shake. "Are you joining our club?"

"Actually," said Lord Steampunk, "I was looking to recruit..."

Phantasmal Forest, the final world of Past Grounds, was a sprawling continent full of lush, dense forests and snow-capped mountains lining the horizon. Traversing it all on foot looked like it'd take weeks. Spyro was not looking forward to hunting down that last darn red gem he'd inevitably miss on his first run through…

"Hey, bud?" Sparx's familiar buzz broke the silence. "You don't suppose we'll run into any humans in this world, do you?"

"In the massive ancient forest miles away from all known civilization?" Spyro cocked his head at the dragonfly. "Gee, I'd keep your eyes peeled." Honestly, if they were going to run into any humans, Spyro figured they'd have done it by now. They hadn't spotted any at the Primordial Farms world, and that place had been crammed with structures that could only have been made by humans. Like, y'know, doorknobs. Spyro had never quite worked out what the deal was with those. "But for real, pal, let's not get our hopes-"

"Look! Can it be?" At that exact millisecond, a whole party of hairless ape-people sprang from the bushes. "The purple dragon!"

"Huh? Wha-?" Spyro and Sparx just about jumped out of their scales. And, err, exoskeleton. But it turned out they were just more of those halflings from earlier.

"It's the purple dragon!" One of them pointed at Spyro, bouncing up and down excitedly. "The prophecy was true!" The group let out a cheer.

"What? Prophecy?" Spyro laughed. "No, no, you've got it wrong. I'm just a regular dragon."

"No you're not," said a halfling. "You're a special dragon born once every ten generations. Your scales are an indicator of your inherent mastery of all the elemental dragon breaths-"

"But Spyro doesn't have mastery of all the dragon breaths," cut in Sparx. "He needs fairy magic or a powerup gate just to use ice breath."

"And besides, there are, like, a dozen other purple dragons back in the Dragon Realms," added Spyro. "There's Azizi, Sadiki, Asher, Alban…"

"Yeah," Sparx added. "I mean, I don't know where you guys get your lore from, but it kinda seems like it's its own, totally separate-"

"TIME TO DIE, DRAGON!" And then out of freaking nowhere, a huge army of Punks erupted from the opposite set of bushes.

"Oh no!" Every last halfling stumbled backwards in horror. "It's the Dark Overlord's forces! Quickly, purple dragon, you must defeat them with your complex and highly engaging system of melee combat!"

"Uh, sure." Spyro promptly charged and flamed the Punks, taking them all out in one hit each.

"Hurray! You did it!" The halflings cheered again. "Now all you have to do is fight dozens more waves of enemies in that exact same manner!"

"And then we get a Power Crystal?" guessed Spyro.

"Nope," said the halfling. "But you do get the satisfying continuation of an engaging narrative."

Somehow, after that, Spyro and Sparx ended up on the precise opposite end of the forest.

After a bit of exploring, they stumbled across one of those starry black mini-portals that led to a walled-off section of the level. The place seemed to be a big, open room made of marble.

"Hey, Spyro!" And waiting right by the entrance was Hunter. He was wearing his blue shorts, which could only mean there were sports to be played. "I found this senatorial chamber where the elves have long-winded political discussions, and I realized it'd make a totally wicked roller derby track! Whattaya say? Wanna compete to see who can do the sickest tricks? If you win, I'll give you this Power Crystal I found."

"You're on!" Spyro was just about to strap two pairs of rollerskates to his feet, but before he had the chance, a twisting rainbow fell from the sky, passing right through the ceiling, and landed beside them. There was a blinding flash, and then Bianca was standing there.

"Hunter, what are you doing?" Her boyfriend shrank under her glare. "I told you, we don't have time for games!"

"Aww, but Bianca-"

"And why would it matter if you gave Spyro one of your Power Crystals, anyways? We're all on the same team here."

Hunter looked genuinely perplexed. "Well, gosh, I hadn't thought of that before."

Once Bianca finished expressing her exasperation (so about fifteen minutes later), she magically poofed away back to the homeworld.

"Hey, Hunter, pal? Don't…?" Spyro leaned forward, then asked in a conspiratorial whisper, "Don't you hate it when Bianca nags you like that? I mean, why do you put up with it?"

Hunter simply shrugged. "Easy. Cuz I love her."

Spyro's eyes were fixed firmly on his front paws. "But why does she do it?"

Hunter didn't even have to think about it. "Cuz she loves me."

After that, Hunter and Sparx ran off through the starry black exit portal, leaving Spyro alone to ponder.

"I am an abused monster."

Every last monster in the circle bowed their heads in sympathy.

"It's taken me this long to admit it to myself, but it's- it's the truth." The enormous yeti paused to blow his nose. He was sitting in the center of a circle of chairs, and above his head, a banner proclaimed the room "The Society for the Protection of Abused Monsters."

"I was just minding my own business," the yeti continued, a far-off look in his eyes, "and then this little kid came up and started yelling about how I took his ball – except I didn't take his stupid ball! Turns out he'd lent it to Eugene the day before. And then... his older brother came and- and started hitting me over and over again!" The yeti was forced to stop here because he was sobbing too heavily.

A big, green, quadrupedal dinosaur leaned forward to rest his head on the yeti's side. "It gets better, man," he said gently. "It gets better."

And then all of a sudden out of nowhere, it got worse. A fireball shot through the air, destroying the Society's banner in a massive explosion.

"What-?" Every last monster present promptly freaked out as two more dinosaurs marched into the meeting room. One of them looked a bit like the green one, except he was blue, bipedal, and sported what had to be the dinkiest pair of wings in the history of dinosaurkind. And the other dinosaur, well... He was the one that freaked the monsters out the most.

"Gulp, you imbecile!" Ripto hoisted his brand new scepter above his head, causing it to crackle dangerously. Gulp's eyes bulged. Where the heck had that little horned turd managed to get a new Power Crystal? "I told you to stop meeting with these crybabies!"

Gulp backed away. Despite vastly dwarfing his old master in size, he was trembling. "But- But boss-"

"Who undid your jinx of inarticulation?" A bolt of lighting from Ripto's scepter zapped Gulp right in the mouth. Gulp stumbled backwards, stunned. He tried to yell out in surprise, but no words came.

"There, much better." Ripto sneered to himself. "I don't know what idiot thought it was a good idea to let you and Crush talk..."

Gulp made a sad grunting noise and huddled closer to his support group.

"Come on, you big oaf." Ripto rolled his eyes. "Don't make me disintegrate all your friends here."

"He doesn't work for you anymore!" one of the braver monsters called out.

"Is that so?" smirked Ripto. He dug a hand into his robes. "Well, then, I guess Gulp won't be wanting... this." In one quick gesture, he retrieved something from his pocket and held it out before Gulp's nose.

Gulp's mouth watered in spite of himself.

"That's right, you lumbering land mass. And there's plenty more where this one came from."

Without a second though, Gulp ran out from his group and obediently allowed Ripto to hop up on his back. Ripto readily tossed him his reward.

The fairy screamed through her gag and fluttered with all her might, but the cords around her wings were too tight. Her shrieks were finally silenced as she plopped into Gulp's open maw.

"Good boy." Ripto gave Gulp an affectionate pat on the horns. "Now then, Crush, Gulp, no more lollygagging." He and his loyal minions bounded for the meeting room exit. "We have a purple pest to exterminate..."

The portal from Past Grounds to Present Valley was an ancient one. Portal technology had existed since before the Sorceress banished the dragons, but this particular portal was so outdated, it wasn't even contained in an arch-shape. It was more like a jagged tear in the fabric of space-time, through which a foreign sky was visible. And even once Spyro, Sparx, Hunter, and Bianca had gathered all the Past Grounds elders, it'd taken them an excruciatingly long time to remember how to reactivate the thing. Eventually, though, the Hanging Gardens elder, a limp-winged butterfly, had finally remembered her lines, and so all the elders had chanted in unison. One magical lightshow later, the portal appeared smack in the center of Past Grounds' mysterious stone structure.

"Be careful, now, our brave new friends," spoke the white-haired, wrinkle-covered Phantasmal Forest elder, a halfling who'd reached the respectable age of two hundred twenty-two years. "Chronolia's other homeworlds aren't quite as tranquil as ours, I'm afraid." The Hidden Inlet and Tidey River elders – an oyster and an otter respectively – shook their heads in agreement.

"Well, not that your concern isn't touching," Spyro replied, "but I think we can handle ourselves." You wouldn't have known he'd been irritated if not for the telltale twitch of his tail.

Would it kill the elders to have a touch more confidence? Spyro had dealt with the nonstop rising-and-falling of the Tidey River, hadn't he? Had found the secret pathway to the last Power Crystal of Hidden Inlet? Protected Hanging Gardens from vicious squirrel invaders? Heck, Spyro had even outraced the winged glowworms of Cavern Speedway! What could possibly be left for him to worry about?

Of course, if Spyro had taken the time to glance back before diving into the portal, he might have noticed the Shallow Reef's starfish elder partaking in some totally innocent whistling.

"Not again!" The portal's exit hole was once again clogged by Hunter's fat butt, creating yet another tangled ball of limbs.

"Huh." As soon as he'd untangled himself, Hunter examined their surroundings. "Present Valley looks a bit more... lethal than I'd expected."

"What are you-? Oh no." It didn't take Bianca long to realize something was amiss. Wherever they were, "valley" was not at all an accurate description. It looked more like a big, circular platform in a dungeon of some sort, suspended over a massive pit of bubbling lava. "The elders must've made a mistake. Come on, let's get back in the-"

A bolt of magic from overhead struck the portal behind them, sealing it up.

"I'm pleased to see you could make it, Spyro," said a voice. "I'd hoped this would be a battle against a whole army of dragons, but if you'd like to go to your execution alone, who am I to deny you?"

"Steampunk!" Spyro looked upwards, growling, to see Lord Steampunk seated in an iron throne on a balcony high above the lava. "I thought I smelled something. You ready to come down here so I can kick your butt?"

"Actually," said Lord Steampunk, "I'd prefer to watch as my associates kick your butt." To our heroes' surprise, a large group of monsters walked out onto the balcony. There was Ripto atop Gulp, with Crush at his side and a new scepter in his hand, and Gnasty Gnorc, wearing the same golden armor but with a new, even bigger magic mace.

"Ugh. Not these dorks again." Spyro snorted out smoke. "Can't you find someone challenging for me to fight?"

But Steampunk merely cackled. "It amazes me, dragon, what little introspection you possess. Haven't you ever wondered why so many powerful magic-users seem to hate the dragons? Do you think it's just because they're mean?"

"Yeah, pretty much," said Spyro.

Lord Steampunk seemed even more amused by the response. "Well, dragon, if you're intent on seeing them as your enemy... then so be it." With a wave of his arm, the bad guys were magically teleported down into the areana as Steampunk watched from on high.

"I can't wait to silence that mouth of yours permanently." Ripto started things off with a fireblast from his scepter, but Spyro rolled out of the way.

"Hunter, keep Gulp busy! Bianca, try to keep Ripto's and Gnasty's spells in check!" Spyro was the first hero to spring into action. By now, he was an old pro at fighting these jerks. The first thing he did was shoot some fire breath at Crush, causing the dino to swat at him with his club. Luckily, the ceiling here was just as unstable as the one in Crush's Dungeon, causing some rubble to fall and bonk him on the head.

Hunter, meanwhile, busted out his trusty bow and arrows and went for Gulp's eyes. He wasn't exactly the bravest feline ever, so attacking from a distance suited Hunter just fine, and since Gulp's rocket-launchers had been destroyed in his last battle with Spyro, Gulp wasn't really able to counter-attack.

Bianca's contribution to the fight was a bit trickier. Wizard duels mostly involved lots of chanting and counter-spells. It wasn't the most cinematic thing ever, but Spyro appreciated the villains not being able to cast any instant-death spells or anything.

"Bianca, quick, cast a supercharge spell on me!"

"You got it!"

With a wave of Bianca's hand and some gibberish-sounding spellwords, Spyro was sent zooming forwards. He hit Gulp right in the stomach, causing a partially-digested fairy to come shooting out his mouth. The fairy cried out in relief and flew off as quick as her soggy wings could carry her.

With Crush and Gulp down for the count, Spyro turned his attention towards Gnasty. "Alright, Gnorc-breath, let's see if you can last longer than two hits this time."

"Don't count on it, dragon!" While Ripto kept Bianca distracted with a spell of his own, Gnasty's magic mace started to let off an eerie green glow.

This, however, went unnoticed by Spyro. It was only the little golden dragonfly at his side who stopped to think about what Spyro was doing. "Spyro, wait-" But Sparx's words were in vain.

Just as a tongue of flame erupted from Spyro's mouth, the magic shot from Gnasty's wand, hitting Spyro right between the eyes. Sparx tried to absorb the damage, even turning blue like usual, but something felt wrong. The spell hadn't just hurt Spyro...

"Spyro!" Sparx's jaw dropped in horror.

Where Spyro had stood a minute ago, there was now an emerald green, crystalline statue. It looked exactly the same as the ones Gnasty had made before, only... Spyro-sized.

"They got Spyro!" Hunter was the next to notice. He turned to Bianca, a sudden determination gripping his eyes. "We've gotta beat these guys now, Bianca." He dropped his bow, clenching his fists. "Turn me into a monster."

"What?" Bianca gaped at him. "Are you crazy?"

"Just do it!"

Right before Gnasty could set his sights on her, Bianca waved her hands and chanted, "Fie foh fee fah fah fah oog!" With a burst of golden light, Hunter instantly morphed into a big, buff feline monstrosity that towered over Gnasty.

"W-What is that thing?" Gnasty backed away in fear.

Ripto, however, merely scoffed. "Ha! You think some oversized pussycat can defeat us? It's not even a dragon. There's no way it could so much as pose a threat to- Agh!" He couldn't finish that taunt because the next instant, he, Gnasty, Crush, and Gulp were all punted into the hot lava by a monster-cheetah.

"Feeby fob grow!" As soon as the villains vanished beneath the lava's surface, Bianca chanted another spell to restore Hunter to his usual size. "Are you okay?" She ran to his side and threw her arms around him.

"Yeah, I'm good," said a particularly confident Hunter… two seconds before collapsing into his lady love's arms.

"But what about Spyro?" Sparx buzzed around the couple's faces, beside himself with fear. "We've gotta free him!"

"Hey, don't sweat it, Sparx." Hunter made his way towards the frozen Spyro. "These crystal dragon thingies bust apart as soon as you get near them, don't they? So all we've gotta do is-"

But before Hunter could even get close to Spyro's proximity, a net shot down from above. The crystal Spyro statue was carried off by a gang of jetpack-weilding Punks.

"They're getting away!" Bianca frantically tried to cast a spell, but Lord Steampunk cast a counter-spell from up on his throne.

"Spyro!" Sparx flew with all his might, but he was simply too small and too slow to catch up with the jetpacks. "SPYRO!"

The dragonfly could only watch helplessly as the procession of Punks left the balcony.

"My, my, how the mighty have fallen." Lord Steampunk rose to his feet. "Now the great Gnasty Gnorc is my underling. But he's served his purpose." He looked over his new, dragon-shaped statue affectionately. "After Gnasty froze them all twice, the Magic Crafters cast a spell over the dragon people to stop it from happening again. But Spyro here seems to have been left out. Normally, he'd be too small to be affected anyways. I suppose the dragons didn't count on me devising some improvements to Gnasty's curse." His laughter echoed through the balcony as he walked away.

Before he'd even made it halfway to the balcony, Sparx was forced to give up in exhaustion. "Spyro... Spyro..."

His color changed from blue to green out of sheer depression alone.