"Now?"

"No..."

"...Now?"

"No..."

"...N-" Crash was about to repeat himself for the fifteenth time when a hand pinched his mouth shut.

"If you say 'now' one more time, I swear I'l-"

"Look, there he is." Crash pointed, being careful that his hand wouldn't leave the green hiding place, or as Coco called it, a bush.

Coco giggled and reached into her pocket, pulling out a remote with a small, bendy antennae coming out the top.

"Wait for it... wait for it..." Crash said. Coco nudged her brother.

"Shh. I'm trying to time this perfectly. You did set the can of paint on the roof didn't you?"

"Er.. Yes." Crash had forgotten that he had left something else up on the roof as well. "Um.. Sis, there's something I need to tell you."

"Not now Crash. Annddd... now!" She pressed the button on the remote, just as their victim had reached the dirt X sketched in the path. Crash and Coco watched the contraption come to life. Springs, marbles and water-filled buckets were added to the contraption, "just for fun". When the last marble had hit its target, the can of paint fell on top of the brawny victim, along with a brick, knocking him out.

"Crash! You put a brick in there?" Coco came out from the bush's shade and went to see if her "adopted" brother was alright. Crash hesitantly started walking toward them.

"Ooh man... Did anyone get the license plate of that truck?" Crunch staggered to his now yellow feet.

"Sorry Crunch! Crash had convinced me to-" Coco stopped herself. Crunch got real angry when pranks were pulled on him, probably because he was so easy to get. Crash knew this fact and tried to use it to his advantage by using his mischievous mind to come up with a way to make Crunch look like a fool every day.

"Crash..." Crunch growled. He was getting sick and tired of all these pranks. He was still sore from yesterday's prank which consisted of a sandwich filled with less-than-desirable ingredients that landed Crunch in the bathroom for the rest of the evening.

"Aw, come on buddy. You know I think you're an awesome guy." Crash leaned on Crunch's shoulder and started to rub his knuckle on Crunch's head.

"Grr... Would you quit it! I'm tired of your pranks." Crunch shoved Crash away.

"You have to admit that those were some good pranks! Let's look back shall we?" When Crunch turned towards Crash, Coco was sitting on a red and white striped couch quietly, eating a bowl of popcorn, while Crash was fiddling with a projector behind the couch. "Sit down buddy." He did what he was told and Coco offered him some popcorn.

"What? You want me to get fat? You want me to get so fat that I'll get stuck in a pit that Crash tries to trap me in? Is this some type of followup? No thanks."

Coco shook her head. "Aren't you being a bit paranoid? It's not like one bowl of popcorn is gonna make you fat. Especially you, I mean look at you... You could work it off in 15 minutes. Now just try some."

Crunch was hesitant. "Fine..." He grabbed a kernel and it instantly crunched under his fingers. He tried again and again but the kernels kept crunching. "Oh forget it."

"Slideshow's ready! Lights!" They waited.

"Crash, you realize we're outside. It's not like you can just block out the sun for the slidesh-" Her mouth hung open once the sun disappeared behind a cloud.

"You were saying?" Coco was babbling like a fool, mainly speaking in one letter syllables. "Anyway. This was my first prank, remember Coco?" The picture showed Coco getting electrocuted by her laptop. The next slide showed a picture of Coco being pinched by a crab, which had been hiding under the sand where she sat.

"And then there's you, Crunch, my new victim." Crash smiled devilishly. The first slide showed Crunch's room upside down and a confused Crunch trying to climb into bed from the ground. Crunch grunted. "You'll remember this..." Crash said, referring to the picture of a sickly-looking Crunch eating a sandwich. "...which led to this." The next photo was of their empty bathroom. "And finally this." Crash flipped the slide.

"Ew! Crash! Get to the next slide!" Crunch had covered Coco's eyes with his hand.

"The itching powder in the underpants prank. Ah... a classic." Crash reminisced.

"That's it Crash. I can't take you anymore. All you do is play pranks and sleep. I don't want to put up with you anymore so I'm leaving!" Crunch got up and threw the projector at the tree, which was being used as the screen for the slideshow and it split in two. Crunch stomped up to the house and slammed the door hard enough to knock it off its hinges.

"Well. He didn't have to be such a spoiled sport." Crash took offense.

Coco took to Crunch's defense."You didn't have to be such a bad brother and friend to him."

Coco walked into the house, to find that Crunch's door was wide open.

"Look. There's a note." Crash pointed on the refrigerator. Sure enough, a yellow piece of paper was taped on the handle, a red marker had been used to make some words stand out.

"Let's see here..." Coco picked up the note and her eyes widened.

Dingodile's furnace was very dusty. Spiders had gotten their way into some of the furnace vents, getting incinerated by intense fire surges.

"Dingodile, you really need to clean this place up." said a short, yellow man.

"What's it to ya? You don't live down 'ere." Dingodile wasn't pleased with his master's comments. Who was he to judge a man, or a dingo mutant for that matter, how he should keep his living space.

"Oh, nothing... You could at least show your superior that you care enough to clean a bit hmm?"

"My superior eh?" Dingodile scanned the room, purposely not looking down. "I don't see 'im. Who're ya talkin' about?"

"Down here you idiot." Cortex crossed his arms. "You know that I'm vertically challenged!"

"Yeah, and you're short too." Dingodile snickered.

"That's it." Cortex whined like a frustrated girl. "You're out of order!"

"So is the vending machine upstairs. What's your point?"

"I'm... I'm... I'm putting you on probation!" Cortex smiled evilly. That would put his minion in his place.

Dingodile raised an eyebrow. "Sure mate, whatever(pronounced whatevah)." Dingodile stormed out of the room, making sure his gator tail whacked Cortex in his fat, abnormal head.

The waves rolled in smoothly on the beach; the sands a shady purple colour due to the intensifying sunset. Dingodile's footsteps left deep footprints in the sand, only to be washed away by a wave, leaving no trace of his path. Dingodile knew exactly what he was doing. He was making sure that his "superior" would not be able to find him so easily. He soon reached his bamboo canoe, hidden in tall weeds lining the forest/beach border. He pushed it to shore and hopped in, paddling with a bark paddle he had stolen from the castle. Waves circled and danced around each other as if, in their own strange way, doing an interpretive dance to tell him where to go.