Crusaders of Dusk and Dawn: Season 3

Synopsis
After saving the world from the shadows, our heroes have slowly moved forward with their lives. Friends have long since become family, and all seems to be right in the world: until a far away discovery of ancient artifacts turns their world on its head.

A new enemy has emerged and engaged our heroes, while a group of unlikely allies appears from across the distance of time and space. In the midst of the chaos an strange invitation could pit the heroes against each other in search for answers, but it may also prepare them for the even greater darkness than they have ever faced.

Cast of Characters

 * Serck J. Moriath
 * Liam
 * Vladimir
 * Dusk
 * Spire

Theme Song
Brain Power -Noma

Episode 1
As the sun sets, Dusk and Spire approach a manor on the outskirts of the city and hear faint explosion coming from underneath the ground. As they near the gate, a hatch hidden in the ground pops open and Liam greets them through a cloud of smoke. They introduce themselves, and tell them they were sent to find Vlad. Liam is skeptical, but when the mention Dawn, the name of the woman overseeing the church renovation, and also mention that they came seeking information on the man Michael, Liam leads them onto the grouns. He says that Vlad is not currently home, but leads the men to a large gymnasium where Azmaria and Reina are practicing.

Vlad is attending a function at the local museum where a group of archeological artifacts are about the be revealed. The coins and crystals on display were gathered from different places around the world after Serck's research in Michael's library led him to look into recent events in archeological research. Vlad began to funnel money into the different digs, and the crystals and coins with various marking representing different dragons were collected and all brought into the city.

At the formal reception where the artifacts were to be revealed, Vlad noticed a tall slim man in a tuxedo with no tie. The man looked at Vlad, raised his glass to him, and than disappeared as another person past in front of him. Vlad thought nothing of this strange man, until the unveiling showed that the artifacts were now all missing.

Vlad rushes to his car, retrieves his armor medallion, but before he can don the armor he is attacked from behind.

Episode 2
The strange man ambushes Vlad as he reaches his car, and Vald is only able to defend himself because of his magical swords the Ringu Kaita. It takes him only a moments notice to recover and don his armor, but the man skill with the rapier forces Vald into a defensive strategy. The fight proceeds across the parking lots, and Vlad finally finds an opening, only to have the man disappear into the shadows at their feet. Stunned, Vald is shocked when he is again attacked from behind, but this time the attack makes him loose concetration. He soon find himself on his back, as the man rips a hole in his armor and slams his palm into Vlads heart. Vlad feels something think into his skin and falls unconscious.

Serck sits alone in Michael's library, books he has read over and over again in front of him. He flips through his notes which show more questions than answers, and than leans back and rubs his eyes. He sits up as the noise of a door opening from downstairs startles him. He grabs his back sheath, slips on his gauntlet, and sneaks down the hallway. He hears the sound of a door closing and sees the front door open in the book store, but knows that he always locks it when he comes in.

Serck inspects the room, and seeing no one, goes to the front door and looks out. A shadow disappears down a nearby ally, and Serck goes to investigate. As he moves after it, he is suddenly shoved deep into the ally from behind, and pulls his giant blade as he spins around. A tall thin man dressed in a black suit thrusts at him with a rapier, and Serck retaliates with his full force. The man easily dodges the giant blade and after a few brief circles, the man ducks inside Serck's guard, grabs his upper right arm, and Serck feels something sink beneath it.

Dusk walks the ground of the strange manor house, Spire inside relating the last of their story to Liam and the woman. He looks up and sees a strange sky with strange stars, and even though he does not remember most of his past, he can feel in his heart that this is not his home. A man appears from out of the shadows wearing a strange black outfit, and while Dusk is on guard, the man approaches him confidently. He speaks briefly with Dusk, asking who he is and how he got there, and than turns and gestures that they should return to the manor. Dusk moves next to the man, who suddenly slams a hand out, pressing something into Dusk's Left wrist. Dusk sees the man disappear into a shadow puddle in the ground before he passes out.

Episode 3
Spire, Liam, and Azmaria discover Dusk has been attacked and immedietly go into action. Azmaria, with a limited knowledge of medicine, takes Dusk back into the manor. Spire is given direction by Liam to find a man named Serck, and Liam retrieves his motorcycle from the garage and zooms of towards the museum.

Liam speeds down the road through town when a man with a drawn rapier appears directly in front of him. Liam skids out on his bike, slamming his palm into a watch like device, and instead of hitting the ground, Liam's bike transforms into a mech around his bod. He lands and stares back at where the man was standing. He sees nothing and than suddenly feels a hand grasp his right ankle and something sharp sink into it.

Spire jumps and runs across the strange tall buildings in this weird world. He follows the precise directions of the man Liam, looking for landmarks and counting off steps, and is so distracted he is is not aware of the trap until it is too late. Spire finds himself being swung around by the ankle and when he is released, feels himself fly across the gap between the buildings. He manages to land on his feet, but his left leg gives out from a pain in his thigh. He looks up just in time to see a man on the other building nod to him with a rapier, and disappear into the roof.

Spire takes a minute to recover, and seeing no sign of the man, tests his leg and continues on to look for Serck. He finds the building Liam described to him, but seeing the front door open, approaches cautiously. He investigates a strange noise coming from an ally way and sees the man known as Serck. He moves to help the man, who is defensive until he is told that Liam was the one who sent them to find him. He helps the man and they slowly make their way back Vlad's manor.

Episode 4
The group all manages to find their way back Vlad's manor, where the modern Crusaders confront their two new companions. They relate their story again, going into more detail of how they met, encountered and than were betrayed by Michael, and how they came here seeking to find a way to stop to troubles on their world. Spire and Dusk are questioned deeply, but the interrogation is interrupted by the arrival of a package.

The box delivered by a messenger contains an envelope for everyone present, including Azmaria and Reina. They are all identical invitations to an underground tournament with directions to board a private plane in three days. Vlad's invitation also contains a hand written note, signed by a man named Roland. Roland says that he has the key to finding Michael, but that the only way they can find it is to come to find him at the tournament. He also taunts the group saying that their skills had better be improved by the time they reach the finals.

Vlad and the other decide that the only way to discover what is happening is to answer the invitations and they begin to prepare for their journey.

Tournament Round 1
The characters go the airport on the third day and find a private jet waiting to take them all to the un disclosed location of the tournament. The crusaders fly through a day and part of a night to land on an airfield outside a large arena like building in the middle of no where. They are greeted as they step off the plane by a mysterious cloaked figure who escorts them into the arena and each to a small bedroom chamber. They are told that a preliminary match would occur in the morning, with the round matches happening immediately afterward.

The next morning they are each escorted to a room where they will face their preliminary matches. Dusk finds himself easily defeating a rival spell caster, Liam bests a strange robotic man, and Serck uses his superiors skills against an glaive wielding opponent. Spire makes an even easier time of his opponent by suing his ninja skills to put him to sleep.

Vlad enters his small room to find an oddly familiar face across the room. His old training partner Nicolai greets Vlad and the two embrace before squaring off to fight. Nicolai summons a spear of light, attacking Vlad with both the spear head and the butt of the staff, but Vlad still bests his old friends easily. Nicolai, seeing his defeat eminent, concedes and wishes Vlad good luck.

The mysterious robed creatures escort each Crusader into a large open arena, filled with screaming people. The bottom floor is ringed by 16 seats, and in the seats sits their friends along with a small laughing boy, a heavily clocked black figure, a man with a severe expression and short black hair, a smaller figure in a sandy white gi with a hood flanked by a large bald man in similar garb,...,and.... Sitting in one of the last two seats, looking very small in the large arena, is Dawn, the slight blonde girl from the chapel. And in the last seat, a raised dias drapped in black banners, sits Roland himself.

Tournament Round 2
the tournament begins with the smaller figure in a gi facing off against ... The small figure moves and whirls around the stage,

The large bald man

Vlad hear his name called, and find himself facing the opponent in the large black cloak. As the battle begins, the man throws off his cloak, and the skeletal gaunt form of crow master is revealed. He lears at Vlad, and than his body bursts apart into a swarm of crows, which attack Vlad digging their beaks into him like daggers. Vlad tries to counter attack, but find it impossible to battle the swarm around him without a target to focus on. All seems lost until he feel a strange power raising in his chest, and he throws out his hand to cast a web of silver light across the air in front of him. As the crows hit the light, they fall the to the ground, and Crow Master reforms, and stands up in frustration. Vlad again throws out his hand and the demon is entrapped in a net of silver. Vlad plunges his twin swords into the beast who vanishes.

Serck than finds himself facing young Reina. The two mostly avoid each other, but Serck has never wished the girl harm since they freed her from Shadow Master. The bout takes an immediate and shocking turn of event as soon as it begins when Reina uses her powerful magic to trap Serck inside a cage of force where he can not reach her with his sword. Reina cast several spells, none of which Serck can avoid, but this only dismays her, and she is so distraught that she runs off the battle stage into Vlad's box, disqualifying her.

Spire enters the ring and is joined by Dawn. She looks at Spire oddly and when they are singled to start fighting she walks up to him, hands him a piece of paper, concedes the match and walks out of the arena. Spire opens the paper to find a love note, much like the one Mog once wrote for him to try and hand out to girls.

The party, high off of two victories (and whatever happened to Spire) grows nervous as Azmaria enters the ring and faces Roland. Roland makes a show of taking off his sword belt and leaving it behind in his box, and Azmaria wastes no time in launching a full attack against him. Roland easily counters, blocks, and dodges her every blow, finally letting her over reach with one of her sickles and kneeing her in the stomach. He than quickly delivers a round house kick that drives her into the floor, and kicks her off the stage. Vlad, Reina and Dusk rush to aide her, and while Roland allows Vlad and Reina to attend her, he tells Dusk that he better be prepared for whats next.

Dusk watches as the man with the sever face stand up and removes his outer robe. He is shocked to have not recognized the man as the gladiator who killed Leon, and Dusk removes his own cloak and draw Glimmer as he steps into the arena. The gladiator smiles at Dusk, drawing his gladius, and the two circle. The minute the signal is given, the two launch at each with a bloodlust. Dusk soon realizes that if he manages to kill the gladiator, it will most likely be at the cost of his life. Dusk resolves himself to greet death, but feel s strange tingling in the tips of his finger on his left hand. He spins, blocking the gladius, and shoves the Gladiator back long enough to place his hand on the floor, and summon a pillar of stone that grows from the man feet to his neck. The Gladiator, unable to move, spits at Dusk as he approaches, but Dusk ignores this, leaning into the man, invoking a curse in Leons name, and that using Glimmer to behead the Gladiator.

Liam, both exhilarated and disturbed, now faces the laughing boy, who he now sees is not walking but floating above the ground. The boy, who calls himself Ghost, does nothing as Liam summons his mech and charges the boy with his lance. The weapon goes straight through Ghost as if he wasn't there, as do the plasma blasts Liam tries after that. Ghost summons shards of glowing blue energy which rip through Liam's mech and send him sprawling. Ghost launches more of the blue energy again and Liam soon finds himself face down in the debris of his own invention. He can feel where bits of his machine have cut into his face around his eye and blinks blood away as he watches Ghost summon his attack again. Liam feels a heat shoot from his toes to his head and time in his vision slows down. He feels the mechanical parts fuse with his eye, and suddenly he can see how Ghost is summoning the shards. Liam moves, dodging the next attack and than raises his hand and summons shards of his own. He launches them at ghost, who screams in pain as they rip through him. Ghost, having never been struck before, huddles in pain at the edge of the stage, and Liam walks up to him and pushes him off the stage to the ground.

Roland calls for the days activities to an end, and dismisses the guest. Vlad tries to call him out, but Roland ignores him. The Crusaders are shown to their rooms, much nicer than the ones they had before, and they find their doors unguarded. They are able to talk amongst themselves, but beyond making sure that Azmaria could be tended too by Dusk, they find very little to discuss. Liam get to work repairing his mech for the next day, and the rest are to tired and upset to say much. They give each other comforting platitudes and retire.

Tournament Round 3
In the morning, Dusk informs the group that he wishes them to continue without him. He had spent most of the night with a heavy heart, and the rest taking care of Azmaria.

The others head out to the arena, to again find it full of spectators. Roland and their other two opponent are already there, and the large bald man takes the stage as Serck is also called. The man attempts to get close to Serck and grapple with him, but Serck uses his speed and strength to keep the man off of him. The two seem pretty evenly matched, and Serck takes a defensive stance, blade in front of him. Serck than feels his power gather in his right arm and flow from it into his sword. Tendrels of black surround him and his opponents eyes go blank, than panicky. The large man begins to panic and cry out that he does not wish to harm whatever he is seeing, but he is staring above Serck's head. Serck approaches the panicked man, who backs away from him until he falls off the stage. Serck than lets go of his sword and the black tendrils leave. The man looks up in astonishment, his eyes wide, and than he stands, bows, and returns to his companion.

Spire follows the smaller companion onto the stage, and when they start fighting, finds himself dodging a flurry of fists and feet. He manages for awhile, but it is soon obvious that the figure will eventually get the best of him. As he looks for anther option, he missteps, receives a kick to the ribs, and is only saved from falling outside the ring by planting his sword into the ground. Spire stand up and sees his opponent, begin to advance again. Spire than feels an odd urge to move to his left, and as soon as he steps with his left foot, he finds himself viewing the figure from multiple angles. He is now a circle of shadow figures, and as the figure looks at who to attack, Spire again steps left. One by one each figure attacks the opponent knocking them of their feet and suspending them in the air as each shadow hits them. Spire hears the body crash to the ground as the last figure strikes it and turns to see the opponent flat on it's back. He approaches, but a faint female voice cries out that she yields. Spire goes to the woman and removes her hood to reveal Solana, who smiles up at her old friend.

The large bald man, who now Spire now see resembles Ferros, comes and helps Solana off the stage. They apologize for the deception but tell Spire they will explain things later. They exit the arena.

Liam in his repaired mech faces off against Vlad, but before they can begin, Roland joins them on stage. He declares that time grows short and this is taking too long. He draws his rapier and attacks them both. Vlad takes the brunt of the attacks as Liam fires from behind Roland, but his superior speed manages to dodge most of the attacks. Vlad notices that Roland's attack are different this time, probing and testing rather than outright hostile, but remembering what Roland did to Azmaria and feels his anger grow. Vlad pushes himself against Roland, and eventually roland turns his attention to Liam, only spending enough attention to ward of Vlad's blows. As Roland approaches Liam, Vlad himself shoves Liam away and out of the ring so that Roland is forced to face him alone. Roland does so, and Vlad slowly begins to win when the ground underneath his feet begins to shake. Roland is thrown down, but Vlad sees the stone split right between his feet, and finds himself hanging to a ledge above a river of fire as the stage splits in two. A large Golden Dragon emerges from the crack, flies into the sky, and disappears.

Vlad in his shock starts to lose his grip and is only saved as a hand shoots over the lip of the crack and grabs him. Vlad looks up to see Roland holding onto him and reaching his other hand down. He tells Vlad to hold on as a silver medallion falls out of his now open shirt collar. When Vlad hesitates, Roland looks him in the eye and tell him that his father said to never leave a man behind. The word ring familiar in Vlad's ears, and he grabs Roland's other hand. They flee the chaos together, gathering Liam Spire and Serck, and than finding Dusk, Azmaria, Reina, solana s and Ferros have already fled.

Episode 10
The group, shaken turns to Roland for answers. He reveals to them that he is the son of Olan, come across space and time to prepare them for the danger they are about the face. Solana and Ferros, vague about how exactly they came to be there, vouch that roland is who he says he is, but that they were not aware of his reasons for coming. They came to try to retrieve or aide Spire and Dusk, but had not been able to find a way home. Their invitations to the tournament said it would be best to keep their identities secret until it was necessary to reveal them.

Roland says that he had heard the stories of his fathers adventures, and Michael's possession by the Gold Dragon, and that he had discovered the differences in time over the two worlds and that used them to figure out when and where the Golden Dragon would appear. He than learned about how relatively settled heir lives had been, and came back to prepare them to face their old mentor with his new found powers. He had also discovered an item called a dragon orb, that should be able to free Michael from the Dragon's power, but that most reports said that it would kill the person it was used on. Roland believed this may be the only way to stop the Gold Dragon whatever his plans were, but the actual location was unknown.

The party is divided on how to proceed. They know that they need to track down Michael and the Golden Dragon inside him, but they must be able to stop him first. The party divides itself: Azmaria will aid Solana and Ferros in looking for other ways to send the Dragon back to Crepus. Roland, Serck, and Liam will track down Michael if they can, using Roland's knowledge as well as the connection Karl still seems to have to his former master. Reina insists on staying with Karl and Liam. Spire, Dusk, and Vlad are tasked with finding the Dragon orb.

Episode 11
Dusk dives into Michael's library, using Serck's notes as a guide and is able to quickly track down references to the orb. It appears that the orb is actually part of a set, and that the orbs can absorb energies they come into contact with. The orbs had been seen on both Crepus and the world they are in, marked in Michael's books as Auroras. The orbs seemed to be highly unstable on Auroras and the only one that Michael had note of was hidden in a pocket dimension. Vlad recognizes some of the markings that are drawn on the paper as the markings in a bunker that they found leading to Shadow Master. The cavern was connected to both a fountain in the park and the basement area of the church. Spire, Dusk, and Vlad leave immediately for the church.

Arriving at the church, they find that the workers are proceeding with renovations, but in a bit of confusion with the disappearance of the lady Dawn. They recognize Vlad as the man who is funding the rebuilding and offer him the keys to the basement. The three of them descend into the basement which Dusk and Spire recognize. Dusk is able to use his magic to find a hidden doorway, the companions feeling a icy chill as they move through it, and beyond find a large open cavern. Vlad recognizes it as the place where they battled Shadow Master, and Spire tell him that they saw a similar place when Michael called forth the green dragon from Solana. The place is much more stable than either remember, and they continue into a complex in the shape of a cross.

The middle section of the complex holds a series of circles within circles. The pattern looks familiar to Dusk, who is used to not remembering everything from his past. The two side passages hold a series of drawings showing different dragons and people, several of which show the orbs and one of which shows an orb being placed to a dragons forehead and glowing.

The head of the cross holds a round room with nine statues around it. On the pedestal in the middle sits an orb roughly the 1 foot around, glowing a faint golden color. Spire approaches the orb and retrieves it. At that moment the whole room shakes and shutters from an earth quake.

Episode 12
At Vlad's estate, Roland relates his knowledge of the dragon he call's Aurum, and the group is able to use Karl to mark out locations where the Dragon visited after it broke through. Aurum, using Michael as a vessel appears to have stopped several times in a roughly Eastward direction, apparently circling the globe in whatever it is looking for. The pattern that emerges in one that will pass through the city, but when and why the dragon has not come there is still a mystery. At the moment they realize this, Karl starts and dashes from the room. They move to follow him but are stopped as a earthquake rocks the building.

When the group finally manages to find their way to the outside of the building, they find Michael standing at the gates. He is flanked by a an small army of snake like creatures that raise up on small wings into the sky. He tells the people gathered there that he has come to them, and that if they wish to stop him now is there chance. The snakes attack the group, but between the combined power of Reina and Karl, the group is shielded from the direct brunt of the assault. Roland, Serck, and Liam managed to dispatched the few that get past Reina's protection, but they soon see that if Reina falters they will be overwhelmed.

Vlad, Spire, and Dusk come out of the church to see a dark cloud over the side of the city with Vlad's estate. The three rush off in that direction, but as they pass near Michael's old shop, they are ambushed by a group of strange snake like creatures. Spire is separated from Vlad and Dusk, who are almost overwhelmed until Solana, Ferros, and Azmaria show up and rescue them. The five of them see no sign of Spire, but rush off to help their other friends.

Roland and Serck decide to take the fight to Michael, and with Liam covering them, they fight hard to reach Michael through his servants. Reina, under Karl's protection, manages to clear some room for them, but it is not enough. Suddenly a bright light comes from the east side of the army and Solana and Ferros break through. Vlad and Azmaria come in from the West and Michael finds himself surrounded as Dusk attacks him from behind. Michael engages Dusk, and thwarts all of his attacks. The others manage to regroup, but are preoccupied by the serpents.

Michael plays with Dusk for a little while, than finally stops, knocking Glimmer from Dusk's hand. Dusk faces the man without his weapon, but finds his magic unable to touch Michael. Michael throws him aside with a wave of his hand, only to find Vlad standing behind with the others ready to attack. His army gone, Michael smiles at the Crusaders and changes into Aurum, the giant gold dragon.

Vlad attacks Aurum head on, and his companions circle and surround the large dragon. They attack from all sides, and while they manage to hit the creature, he throws them back. One by one they are injured or exhausted and finally Vlad falls to his knees before the creature. Aurum rears over him, and asks why he thought he could stop what was coming. At that moment Vlad looks up and smiles, yelling NOW.

Spire appears from above Vlad and slams the dragon orb into Aurum forehead. The creature rears back and screams in frustration, a golden energy swirling out of his body and into the orb. In a flash of gold, the dragon vanishes and the orb falls next to the unconscious body of Michael. The group moves towards them, but Michaels body slowly vanishes.

Epilogue
The church at the edge of town stands complete, and is decorated from floor to ceiling. Vlad and Azmaria exit the church to a crowd of cheers. Azmaria stops before their limosine and throws her bouquet at the crowd where Reina catches it. The rest of their friends congratulate her as they wish Vlad and Azmaria a fun trip.

Nearly two years have passed since the fight with Michael, and the lives of the Crusaders holds just as many mysteries as they did before that day. Ferros and Solana came to town to attend the wedding, but leave the day after to continue their search across the world for any information or artifacts that may help them. They visited all the sites the Golden Dragon stopped at, the sites where the artifacts from the museum were found, and any places mentioned in the books of Michaels library. Solana feels a deep drive to return to Crepus, but nothing of how to return has revealed itself.

Dusk has joined Serck in his research at Michael's, where they feed what information they can find or glean to the others. Much of their time is spent in quiet contemplation and reading, but they have developed a deep bond and respect regardless.

Liam and Reina have hidden the orb deep underneath Vlad's estate, using their knowledge of science and the arcane to study the energy trapped inside. The orb gives away few secrets to ti's purpose, but it is clear the energy trapped inside of it is meant to be harnessed in some way.

Spire sneaks to the basement of the church. Dawn never returned to her quarters and Spire has many questions for her. The pocket dimension remains intact but there seems nothing more to glean from it. Spire gives a sigh of resignation, leaving to return to assist Liam and Reina as best he can.

Roland stayed long enough after Michael's attack to be sure everyone would recover. He shared some passing information about what was happening on Crepus with the group, than disappeared. He promised that if he found his way back to Crepus he would let them know, but no one has been heard from him since."Directory"