Thunder boomed and lightning flashed as Cortex stared out the window of his newly rebuilt Cortex Castle. He was covered in bandages from losing the most recent fight yet again, but he was already preparing for revenge. His plan was to try to create a leader for his army, as per usual, except he was going to try a new approach: earn the trust of the test subject by saving its life. He had sent out a robot to cause a little trouble, then he'd head out to collect whatever animal was caught up in the accident.
A voice then came over the communicator. "Mission complete, rockslide caused at rock formation in center of jungle. Returning to base."
Cortex made his way downstairs and grabbed two things: a cage and a rain coat. He then went outside and got in an old Jeep driven by a robot who took him to the sight of the rockslide. His eyes scanned over the area and he spotted a nearly abandoned snake's nest with a few large pythons still slithering away from rocks that were still falling.
One of the pythons darted towards something moving in the bushes, getting the attention of the scientist. Cortex put on the rain coat and started to follow the snake to see what it was after.
A small bandicoot was running for its life, trying to escape a huge python. The poor little creature was injured from running through thorn bushes, it's fur stained red from its blood. It found itself cornered between the python and a cliff, no way to get to safety. The python hissed and lunged at it's prey, catching the bandicoot. Large fangs ripped into the small animal's side and caused more bloodshed.
The snake started to slither away with it's food when it's head was shot off by a lazer. Cortex walked over and pried the injured bandicoot out of the decapitated snake head, quickly putting the small animal into the cage.
"You'll be my last attempt with a bandicoot, hopefully you won't end up like the others." Cortex spoke to the animal as the Jeep driver headed back to Cortex Castle.
As soon as they arrived, Cortex took the injured animal into his lab and began to bandage it up. It would take some time for the wounds to heal, so he was going to wait to evolve the bandicoot.
"You will be my general, I will not fail this time...the world will be MINE..." Cortex grinned as he held the bandaged creature, which was now passed out from blood loss.