A Crash in Time
Dingodile sighed, and looked straight at Nina Cortex. Behind her was a still weeping Tiny Tiger, and the sapphire Relic placed back on its pedestal. "Care to tell me how the bloody hell this happened?" he growled. Nina only rolled her eyes.
"The stupid redhead put on an act that obviously Tiny was duped by. Besides, I didn't want to stay around to be the one to get pulverized."
"Whatever," the hybrid replied gruffly. Just then, the room was illuminated in a flash of yellow, and they had to shield their eyes to avert being momentarily blinded. When the brightness died down, they saw Nega Bandicoot staggering to a stand. Inevitably, he failed to do so, and he collapsed. Tiny had by now stopped crying and gazed blankly at the fallen bandicoot.
"What happened to you?" Nina asked. Nega didn't reply, but only gave a strangled groan. The girl rolled her eyes, and directed her next statement to Tiny. "Help him out."
"Tiny will help," replied the tiger, and grabbed Nega by the collar of his trench coat. As Tiny held him up, they saw numerous amounts of scratches and bruises on his nimble body. Nega stared up at them wearily.
"It's called pain, mate…"
"What happened?" Dingodile asked.
"Well," Nega sighed, and motioned for Tiny to set him down. The latter complied, and he stumbled before standing in a hunched position. "There was this huge mole…thing… It suddenly attacked me, and dragged me inside of the mine. Afterwards, it tried to eat me."
"Interesting…" Nina said with a sort of glimmer in her eyes. "It may still exist today, if it were immortal like the Temporal Discs."
"I doubt that," Dingodile muttered dryly. "Each Temporal Disc only subsists in a certain time period. If, by chance, we were able to locate them today, that would be nice. Unfortunately, Cortex could only pinpoint the areas of where they were most noted. For instance, in the Wild West, miners knew about the Disc. In the Medieval times, it was guarded, like in the Egyptian time period. In Rome, people considered it a gift from their gods."
Nega, subsequently, grew bored of his blathering, and took to admiring his claws. Nina glanced over, and rolled her eyes. "Moron."
"What?" he asked defensively.
"You weren't paying attention, that's what."
"Well it's not really my fault that Dingo has a tendency to ramble on about nonsense!"
"Hey!" Dingodile snapped, his very sharp teeth showing. "I'm just explaining, you mongrel! It's not like you're the one who takes the time to oversee the missions!"
Nega immediately backed down, and nodded. He wasn't in the mood to get into a fight, seeing as how he was already injured from the scrape with the mole, and that Dingodile had the strength of a crocodile and the taste of a dingo. Dingoes, as you may know, have an appetite for bandicoot.
"So," Nina said, furrowing her brow, "What about the next two discs? How was my uncle able to get their coordinates?"
"What do you mean?" Dingodile asked.
"Well, considering the next one is set really far back, and the other one is in the future. How was my uncle able to record things in prehistory and things that haven't even happened yet?"
The room got quiet for a moment, confusion etched onto Dingodile's face. "I don't know…" he admitted. Nega simply growled, and stretched his limbs.
"Well face it. We're not getting anywhere caring about it, and I'd rather decide to stop caring so we can get something done."
"Never thought I'd say this, but your little 'moron' is right," Dingodile sighed, crossing his arms. "I'm gonna go get my flamethrower, so you two don't do anything too dangerous." With that, he left the room, leaving Nega, Nina, and—regrettably—Tiny in the room alone. The teenager sighed, and crossed her arms, giving Nega a stare.
He stared back awkwardly. "What?"
"Nothing. Except for the fact that you're injured and you can't make another trip."
Nega's eyes widened and he began to sputter troubled gabble. Finally, he made coherent words. "Well! I am in perfect shape! I can handle myself, thank you very much! I'm in perfect health!"
She sighed and rolled her eyes. "You're stupid and you don't know when to quit, you persistent fool."
Nega grit his teeth and balled his fists. He supposed that he could just kill her and dispose of the body carefully… but the odds are, Cortex would find out and… That would be the end of him. Well, Cortex didn't show too much interest in his niece. Maybe he wouldn't notice right away. Maybe when the summer's over, things won't change a bit when she goes back to her private school.
Although, that didn't mean that he didn't have time to argue with the buck-toothed girl. They yammered on for what seemed to them hours, when finally Dingodile came back with his flamethrower. He saw the two in dispute, and sighed in disgust. He really was the adult here, wasn't he?
"Nega, you're arguing with a kid. You're twenty-three years old. Get a grip," Dingodile snarled threateningly. The bandicoot muttered a curse, and quieted. "Now, let's decide who goes where."
Kate tumbled through the whirligig, and lay sprawled on the floor rather comically. She sighed, seeing the familiar mist that formed with her breath. "This is certainly going leave a bruise or two during this fiasco, isn't it?" She then got into a sitting position, and stood up. Oddly enough, there were puddles of water on the ground, and she stood over one, seeing her reflection.
"Man, I look terrible," she said in disgust, combing her fingers through her matted red hair. "I need a shower too." But then, she saw her ear. There were dried splotches of blood around the area of where skin was ripped off. She bit her lip, and noticed the shredded look to it. "Oh my…"
"Mrs. Bandicoot," a voice sighed. Kate forgot about her permanent scar and whipped around. She saw Nefarious Tropy standing in front of her, his strange fork-like staff glowing with energy. "I require the item of ultimatum."
"Ultimatum?" Kate smirked. Suddenly, the disk formed within her grasp, and she handed the object to Tropy. Her lips tightened. "Don't think I don't know your plan."
Suddenly, her head began to ache terribly. Her brain seemed to scream with agony. Kate fell to her knees to cope with the blinding pain, gripping onto her hair. Now, it was Tropy who smirked. "I do think that. After all… you're memory is being erased."
"What… is this…?" Kate gasped. It felt as if her entire skull would split right down the middle. She began to forget things very quickly, not remembering anything that happened since she'd come in possession of the second disc.
"Don't worry, my dear. You still know your mission, and you still know what will happen if you do not complete it. I will give you only twelve more hours to find the third and final disc. The Disc or Life awaits you now."
Kate, through throbbing and blurry vision, saw her surroundings start to swirl into blue dust and glittery light, yet her face still cringed with pain.
"Wha… What's happening…?"
The bandicootess stood to her wobbly feet, gazing at the vortex she was in. She was no longer cold, yet she wasn't warm either. It felt… empty.
The ground rushed up to meet her much too quickly. She tumbled across a new foundation, one that she didn't take it too fondly. It was hard and rocky, and some stuck to her skin. Wincing, Kate rubbed her forehead. The pain was waning and was more tolerating, yet that wasn't her main concern.
Where was she?
Better yet, when?
She took a moment to take in her new surroundings. The sky was a horrible red color, and dark clouds scattered everywhere. She sat in the midst of a large city, or what once was a city. Kate found that she'd fell on asphalt, a tarnished and broken road. Buildings were either crumbled or totally destroyed, their external structure wholly or partially intact. Glass was scattered everywhere, and sickly looking rats scuttled about the place in search for food.
Kate swallowed. What was this place? Was this the aftermath of an earthquake? How come there weren't any people? Unless…everybody was dead.
A shiver danced up her spine as she began walking. Kate felt frightened being in such a gloomy place. The empty feeling returned to her in the pit of her stomach. A rat ran across her foot, and she gave a surprised shout, kicking the vermin away.
As Kate slowly made her way down this road, she saw a large billboard, and gasped. "Wumpa City?" she breathed. It was indeed the city; she could tell because she recognized some of the signs that she'd seen while shopping in the city for groceries. There were many bars that were obviously abandoned, but their dim lights still shone for the strangest of reasons.
Wait, if this is Wumpa City, why was it like this? Last time Kate checked, it was perfectly fine. Now, it was in ruins. Crash never informed her of the city's collapse, so it never was like this in the past. That meant…
Kate realized that she was just near her home. She had to be sure that this was truly what she thought.
Crash sighed, and stared at N. Tropy. "So, I take it you want this?" he said, holding up the Temporal Disc of Earth. Tropy narrowed his gaze coldly.
"I demand that you hand over the item, Crash Bandicoot."
"Or what?" inquired the orange Anthrian, folding his arms diligently. "You'll send me into some God-forsaken wormhole?"
"Believe me, that sounds like an excellent idea; but you are important to the mission. Hand it over, or else Ms. Clark will suffer the consequences."
"Really?" Crash knew that what he was doing was dangerous, but he was desperate to strike a nerve. "Then let me see her for myself."
Tropy froze, but then he snarled. He pointed his staff at Crash, and a beam of light shot out from it, shocking him. The latter gave a yell of anguish, and the disc fell from his grasp. It levitated to N. Tropy, and he opened the door in his chest, locking it inside. Crash furrowed his brow and scowled.
"Someone's a little rude."
The scientist was in no mood to be tormented. "You will find your third and final disc, the Temporal Disc of Desire. Twelve hours."
Crash's mouth fell open. "Twelve? That's it?"
N. Tropy made no more that a simple smirk as a reply. Crash was surrounded in blue mist and dust, and he was no longer in the dark room he was always in. It was rather odd, time travel. It took about an entire minute before you strangely arrived in another time period. He found himself rolling through vegetation, and regrettably a muddy surface. He crawled out of the bush.
"Oyi," he groaned. "I'm getting too old for this crap."
He saw that huge trees towered high, and bushes grew to the size of houses. The air was thick, but was surprisingly fresh. First thing he thought it was were the forests of his home, N. Sanity. Yet, as he got a closer look, this certainly wasn't his island paradise. The plants weren't quite the same, and the trees… They looked like they needed a trim.
Crash realized that he was still in his cowboy disguise, and he quickly began to take off the vest and flannel shirt. Tossing them onto the ground, he inhaled contently. One day, he swore he would just ditch the pants and run around in his birthday suit. That would surely startle the crew.
Crash began to trek through the mighty jungle, whistling a nonchalant tune. He suddenly wondered how they were treating Kate. Were they feeding her? A growl ran through his stomach. If he was hungry, she was bound to be too. The marsupial stopped upon seeing a large tree, bearing one fruit.
"Now that's what I call luck," Crash said. "I'm famished." Staring the large tree up and down, he pondered on how he was going to get the fruit without putting little to no effort into the task. It was at a considerable height, and he was relatively short, besting at least six inches over five feet. He liked the fact that he was taller that Kate, otherwise he would feel strangely discouraged. Although, Coco was starting to catch up on both of them, and that fact alone could make his heart stop.
He caught site of a rock sitting near the oddly shaped trunk, and he picked it up. If he threw it well enough, he could break the small branch and the fruit would tumble to the ground. On the other hand, if he missed, it would probably ricochet and hit him in the face. "Ah, well. I'm reckless," Crash muttered, tossing the stone in his hands a few times before chucking it at the branch. It snapped immediately, and the fruit fell from the tree.
Crash caught it. "Alright!" he beamed. He was about to take a bite of the succulent looking fruit, when something began tugging on his jeans. He furrowed his brow, and looked behind him. He gasped.
It was a little dinosaur the size of a chicken, chirping up at him.
