Chapter 8
"Seems I have committed treason
All I've Sacrificed
Led to Nothing"
A/N: Okays. I finally updated. Fake Crash isn't dead of course. I love him too much! I just got a job and yeah…
I woke up in yet another hospital bed. However this time, I wasn't greeted by any hot nurses. The blue man called N. Tropy, the egg dude N. Trance and another floating mask were all standing there arguing.
"Crash has almost all the crystals…and those other two are out of our control," said N. Tropy.
"If Crash is the one stopping us, who's this guy?" N. Trance gestured to me.
"Who cares? You two are failing me just like Cortex! I thought I could count on you two to actually get something accomplished!" The ugly floating mask seemed angry.
"Don't worry Uka Uka…I'll take care of Crash myself," said the egg dude. He walked over to my bed and looked down at me with his creepy-looking face. "I don't know what or who you are, but since you're the only one left then you can still be useful."
I reeaaaaallly wanted to ask them all how they knew Cortex, but I kept my trap shut and just nodded and grinned like an idiot.
"Follow me then." N. Trance began to walk out the doorway. I got out of bed but my injured leg collapsed under me. My torso was once again covered in bandages and so was my left leg. N. Tropy handed me a walking stick. I hobbled after the egg man feebly.
N. Trance took me to a cliff overlooking a clearing. On the edge of the cliff there was a random lever embedded into the ground.
"What's with the random lever?" I asked, then regretted it instantly.
N. Trance's eyes bugged out more than ever. "Did you just talk?"
I shook my head and grinned stupidly, but he didn't buy it. He pulled my walking stick out from under me, and I fell to the ground. As I looked up, the egg showed me the pretty swirling shape again. I felt all nice and floaty. "Listen to me you little couch cushion. All I want you to do is pull this lever whenever the little green light comes on. That means Crash is under the cliff. The lever will send lava raining down upon his head, cooking his flesh until he screams in horrible pain," N. Trance explained. I cringed at the thought. "You think you can manage THAT at least?" The egg asked. I nodded and grinned stupidly again.
N. Trance walked away and left me there, leaning on the lever for support. How did I get myself into this? I didn't remember. All I could remember was that beautiful swirl. Oh yeah, that Crash…that awful Crash had caused me to hurt myself really badly. The nice egg man told me to kill him, so that is what I would do. I stood there for a while, thinking about nothing…and the nice swirly thing of course.
"Be ready, here he comes." N. Trance flew towards me over the ground. He appeared to have no limbs, but he had turned himself into a floating rocket of some sort. I nodded and gripped the leather handle of the lever in both paws. My masters were depending on me to be the best lever-puller I could be. So I would do my best for them…and the pretty swirly. It was swirly and pretty. They might let me see it again if I did a good job.
Crash flew into the clearing, sporting a sort of helicopter jet pack. N. Trance shot several colored ball things at him, but he dodged them. Then he shot a large ball at Crash, which followed him around. It finally hit him and a confused look came onto his face. He flew around in random directions, dodging things that weren't there. N. Trance laughed in a hysterical manner and flew towards his victim. Crash used a weird spinning move and whacked the purple egg in the face. He flew towards the bottom of the cliff. Bing! The green light came on. Oh boy...it was time! Excited, I pulled the lever as hard as I could. I heard a sizzling sound from below me.
"AAUUGGH! Not me you idiotic stuffed animal!" N. Trance screamed in pain. Oops. Did I not do a good job? The egg floated up to me, glaring furiously with those big creepy eyes. "Obviously, if you can't see me out there, I'm obviously down below IN THE PATH OF THE LAVA. So next time, get HIM not ME you worthless toilet brush."
"I'm really really really really really sorry. I am soooo sorry. It will not happen again. If it does happen again, which it won't, I give you permission to-"
"Enough." N. Trance started to swirl the swirly thing again. I immediately forgot why I was apologizing.
He flew towards Crash and shot beams at him, all of which the bandicoot avoided. He continued to spin around in the air and knock N. Trance in the face. The egg bounced around the clearing like a super ball. I expected yolk to spill out of him at any second. Again he flew under the cliff and the green light came on. I pulled the lever without thinking. Again there was a scream of pain.
"Gahhh! %*^)*^#(!" N. Trance yelled as he came up covered in dying flames. "You…steaming…bowl of…peach fuzz…" Somehow, deep red veins were standing out on his nonexistent neck.
This time I didn't say anything. He went back to get horribly burned some more. Three more times this happened, where I apparently messed up.
Finally, an extremely charred N. Trance fell to the ground, coughing up smoke. Crash did an aerial dance of happiness. I stared at him, and as my swirly-induced high began to wear off I came to the realization that I had failed. Also, I realized that this was the guy who had unwittingly stolen my life and my identity.
In a moment of complete stupidity and anger, I leapt off the cliff and grabbed Crash by the ankles. "You stole my life you bastard! You'll pay for that!"
Crash looked down at me, confused. The helicopter pack made an unhappy noise as my weight dragged it downwards. I tried to climb up his spindly legs and go for the throat. Without warning my enemy did a tornado spin again and I flew in a random direction. My stomach felt strangely like it was bouncing around inside me. My head collided with the cliff side and I blacked out…again.
"Wake up you repulsive rat!" Woah, N. Tropy's blue face glared down at me in frustration. I was in the same hospital bed again…I barely even had time to register that fact before he grabbed me by the arm and yanked me to my feet.
Jabbing a finger into my chest he snarled, "You're finished, do you hear me, FINISHED!" I was dragged to the weird place where I first was brought here. I stood at attention no more than five feet away from the portal which was my ticket to freedom. My eyes traveled to it every three seconds as N. Tropy stood across from me, breathing heavily and angrily.
"I am unsure of who or what you are, but I do know this. You are the most useless creature I have ever encountered. It is all because of you that we have failed!"
I didn't like the look in his eyes. This was a desperate, and possibly mad man. Their failures definitely weren't MY fault. N. Tropy was just looking for something to take his anger out on, and I was the only one around. It also couldn't have helped that I looked like the creature he and his friends all hated. As he stared at me with that murderous gaze, I shifted my weight onto my good leg, feeling uncomfortable. I took one step to the left, towards freedom.
"DON'T move you ugly…thing…" N. Tropy poked his staff in my direction. Not attacking, just…staring in the same way.
Yes, I'm ugly. So couldn't everyone stop mentioning it already? I turned my attention to a crack on the ground, trying not to act afraid.
The blue man took a few steps closer. "Beg, won't you? Beg for your life like the dog you are." His staff glowed with power. I swallowed a lump in my throat.
The portal flashed a few times. The blue swirl pattern reversed itself. A shape climbed out, accompanied by a floating mask.
"We're here Crash! Now let's stop them once and for all!" Said the mask.
Crash stared at my sorry injured form, screwing up his eyebrows as if in an attempt to remember something.
N. Tropy lowered his weapon and took a step back. "NOOO! I can't defeat all of these bandicoots myself!" He quickly took off through another portal, leaving me alone with Crash and the mask.
My rival and I stared each other down. I glared at Crash with the horrible jealousy I had so long harbored, and he stared at me with blank confusion. He looked about ready to say something…could he even talk?
I asked him. "Can you talk?"
The other bandicoot shook his head.
"HA!" I jabbed a finger in his direction. "You can't even talk! I can! Haaahahahaa!" I danced around in triumph, ignoring the pain in my leg. "Woot! So what now? Who's the best now, huh? Cortex made a mistake picking you over me. You didn't even appreciate all the attention he gave you. You betrayed him! If I went back there right now I would be welcomed back like a hero. Why did you betray Cortex? You don't know how good you had it." I limped up to him, staring into his eyes. "I would've given anything to be you; to be wanted and needed, and you go and throw it all away. Why?"
Crash looked at me with regret, and great frustration. There were a lot of things he wanted to tell me, but he couldn't. Maybe he was jealous of me?
"Cortex is a person who is incapable of caring for anyone but himself, or at least he has no compassion whatsoever for the things he creates. He thinks of them as tools; things to be used and thrown away. He dismissed Crash as worthless simply because of his appearance, even though his creations that look so powerful don't have nearly the inner strength or heart. He missed out on Crash's true power within, because he judged too quickly," The mask explained.
"Cortex did that to me…he thought Crash would be stronger because he looked better. I don't really have any power within though…so I guess he was right to judge me." I sighed.
"Don't dismiss yourself as weak just because someone else says so. Your strength does not need to lie in fighting, for that isn't a true measure of greatness. You have a strong heart, I can see that. You are meant for something great; but you need to find what it is."
The mask was very wise. I looked down, and thought for a moment about what he said. Crash smiled at me, and put a reassuring paw on my shoulder. I looked at him for a minute. He was fighting against Neo for…for what? Just because he thought what the man was doing was wrong. I was fighting against him because…Nina! I couldn't believe I got so caught up in all this that I nearly…forgot. How embarrassing.
"Outta my way! I gotta go." I shoved a confused Crash aside and leapt into the portal. Woooooaahhh! The wind buffeted me once more, and my body felt like it was being torn in two.
I flew out and collided with a large and squishy object. "Hello there," said a gruff voice. I looked up. An ugly bearded face leered back at me. "Madame Amberly will need to hear about this right away." The man took my arm and dragged me away from the portal.
Virus, Lucky, and Cyanide came at that moment. "Man, we thought you were dead. You didn't come back for two days, so we had to get help," Virus explained.
"I almost did die…and now I'm in trouble. Thanks guys," I muttered. I let the large guard lead me across the campus and to Madame Amberly's office, not looking back at my newest friends. I had too much to think about right now.
