Crash Bandicoot 5:
Speed of Desire
Prologue- A Worthy Challenge
The infinity of space was silent. The earth, cradled in an embrace of shimmering stars, appeared serenely peaceful in the quietness. Not far from the planet's glowing blue and white atmosphere were the ruins of a demolished space station. It floated in dead space, charred and blemished with jagged edges. This station had been uninhabited for a month since the embarrassing desecration at the hands of a bandicoot. Three bandicoots, to be positively precise. Since then, the station was empty until it could be rebuilt.
Yet this heap of broken metal floating from such a pristine target did not concern the certain individual who was currently admiring the sphere so radiant with life. He tilted his head to the side, and stroked his long tubular mouth with interest. For a long while now, he had been searching the galaxy for fast creatures that could match his skill. Before he could dub himself the fastest being in the universe, he had to first conquer every galaxy. He had done so already, and to his disappointment none of them had proven much of a challenge. Granted, he still had many galaxies to go once he conquered this one.
Stationed in a massive dreadnaught of a star ship, Nitrus Oxide gazed across the controls in front of him. Now how did these creatures evolve in their modes of communication? Oxide sent out a search beacon to connect with a visual device so that he might take a look at the inhabitance of the planet called earth. As he waited for the beacon to fetch a compatible signal, Oxide thought back to his previous competitions. He had never been one to stand incompetence, and therefore when he would run out of racers on a planet to challenge him, he would decimate it. Such mediocrity didn't deserve to exist anyway. Oxide clicked his fingers on the dash of his ship before turning toward the sharp wailing that cut through the silence.
The signal was coming from the abandoned space station. Oxide drew back his brow in confusion. That perplexity did not, however, curb his desire for knowledge. He activated the channel, and found that although he hadn't a live camera of the happenings on the surface, he did have access to many confidential files. It was absurdly simple for Oxide to crack the codes and enter the files. He sat back in preparation for boredom. What he got was much more enjoyable.
He had apparently stolen copies of surveillance cameras that had been located on the space station. Accessing one, he watched the screen flicker and then materialize before him. The scene demonstrated an odd looking creature, something of a bipedal orange rodent, dashing through the metallic halls of a space station. His eyes were glowing with a strange magenta shimmer, which made Oxide's brow furrow in bewilderment. He clicked another file, and this time he viewed the same creature, only this time he was battling another rodent-like creature. This new appearance was dressed in a sharp striped suit, and was wrestling with his opponent to gain control over a mediocre automatic weapon. In another clip, he saw a new character, a tall slender female of the same species and colour as the first creature Oxide beheld. In another access, Oxide saw a young blond-haired girl with the same dark orange fur. He quickly skipped through the files to the most recent connection. He accessed it with the easy click of a button. Now, he saw the male orange rodent immersed in a serious duel with a large, well muscled creature coated in claret fur. This creature's right arm was mechanical, and although his massive size dwarfed his smaller opponent, the orange walking rodent was able to defeat his enemy. There were a few more minutes of blank tape, and at that time, Oxide switched it off.
He scratched his head in confusion. He had seen a few planets where the inhabitance had animal characteristics, but from his previous studying of earth's main population, Oxide had been expecting homo sapiens. It took a quick scan of research to discover that his first thought had been correct. It appeared that human beings made up the largest portion of this world, yet there was a small amount of intelligent anthropoids situated on a cluster of small islands. From the records, these creatures were virtually unknown by the humans. Oxide grinned fiendishly. He ultimately decided, then and there, that he would race no other on the planet than those half-evolved creatures. To him, they seemed to be the only batch of miserable earth-dwellers that were worthy of his attention.