If it hadn't been for the ever so distracting wumpa fruit on the ground, Crash would've gotten a boulder to the face. Yes, after following the familiar animal into the core of a volcanic mine, Crash bent down and scooped up the single piece of wumpa fruit, narrowly avoiding the boulder hurled at him. When Crash came back up, he glared the creature in the eyes with a newfound determination to beat his foe to the ground and, hopefully, find out where Coco may be.
Crash took a standing position, similar to a western duelist's stance, and motioned at the creature, clear across a lava stream, to throw another boulder. The creature obliged, tossing another worthless hunk of stone over towards Crash; he missed, and if he'd left it at that, he wouldn't have had to endure the shot of pain he was feeling after Crash spun it back right at him. Angry, he stomped on the ground a few times, bringing down a few TNT crates from higher ground; Crash's first instinct, of course, was to avoid the TNT crates, which was made ever so difficult by the simultaneous boulder tossing.
After the crates exploded well out of Crash's range, he motioned at the creature once more to toss another boulder. Regardless of whether it was out of brain damage, the creature once again answered by tossing yet another boulder in Crash's direction, which he promptly dodged once more and just as promptly sent it back, sending more pain throughout the creature's body. This went on several more times, getting to the point where even Crash was surprised the creature was still standing. However, the biggest surprise was when the creature hopped over to Crash's side of the mine, finally tipping the balance.
Crash should've been worried, but he thought out a surprisingly effective way to know the creature out: circling around it, hopefully drawing it to bash on the ground once more and, in turn, bring down more TNT crates. It shouldn't have worked, but the creature actually was dumb enough to play into Crash's hands once again; TNTs rained from the sky, Crash lured the creature to the biggest cluster, and… Kaboom! The creature was laying face down on the ground, leaving Crash to dance in celebration at the monstrous feat he accomplished.
"CRASH?" Aku shouted. "Did you come down here?" When he got to the end of the tunnel and saw Crash shaking his butt, he knew this was the case.
"Crash!" he shouted once more; Crash turned around and waved at his supernatural pal once more.
"What's going on here?" Aku asked. Crash's happy expression melted to an emotionless frown as he pointed to the unconscious creature he's downed moments ago.
"Another of that monster's experiments?" Aku asked. "First a kangaroo, and now a koala? Does he know no shame?" As Aku pondered this, Crash just resorted to poking the poor koala, hoping to wake him up for clues on where his dear sister may be.
"Save your energy, Crash," Aku added. "You've gone and knocked him out cold." Crash just continued poking, hoping for even a single response.
"CRASH!" Aku shouted once more, but Crash kept at it. Then the next thing the hapless bandicoot knew, the koala spontaneously burst into flame, forcing Crash to pull back his hand. He looked back to Aku-Aku, who was no doubt the culprit, and proceeded to scratch his head.
"What?" Aku asked. "I only seared his fur off and nothing more." Sure enough, when Crash turned back to the koala, it was now naked, devoid of any fur.
"Back on topic," Aku continued, "we're running very low on time. The sun is starting to set, and we haven't even made it to the castle's island." Crash once again scratched his head.
"If we want to save her, we need to at least make it to the next island by nightfall. So we should leave by, oh, right now." Crash reacted to this sentence by popping another piece of wumpa fruit in his mouth and dashing out the same way he came in. Aku would've been in awe, but he was well aware of the fruit's effect on the hapless bandicoot.
"That's about as unbelievable as my durability," Aku remarked as he took off to follow Crash.
CB CB CB CB CB
Coco just continued to sob while back in her stone cold cell in the castle. That was it. Her last chance to escape, and she wasted it on chasing down a false lead. With her IQ, that kind of info would've been easy to sniff out as a fib, but she let blind concern lead her to disaster. If only there were something she could've done.
"Oh Crash," she mumbled to herself. "I've failed. Now no one will be able to save you now. Or me." Despite all of the banging, whether it be from the untouched native animals or exotics like komodo dragons, Coco remained curled up in the corner, silently sobbing at the realization her life was officially over.
Even when a new henchman, a part dingo, part crocodile hybrid, came to retrieve her from her cell, she chose to ignore anyone that crossed her path.
"Hey! 'Mon, lass," the creature shouted. "Normally I'd let this ruckus slide, but the boss' 'assistant' is ready to take possession of you again."
"Shove off," Coco barked. "Can't you see I'm crying out my sorrow?"
The creature shrugged. "Well, I didn't wanna do this," he started as he pulled out a comical looking weapon connected to a shoulder-mounted tank, "but if you don't 'mon out on your own, I'll be forced to roast ya."
"You'd be willing to risk delivering your cargo damaged?" Coco clarified. "Sounds like you're not that bright."
"It might, but it gets the job done. Now 'mon out now!" With nothing else up her sleve, Coco stretched in her cell, hopped out, and proceeded to follow this strange hybrid to the stumpy scientist from earlier. There wasn't much to note on the way there, as the surroundings hadn't even changed one bit since she passed through on her escape.
"Hey mate," the creature shouted as he and Coco entered Brio's lab. "I brought the subject."
"G-G-Good work, D-D-Dingodile," Brio stuttered. The creature now known as Dingodile bowed. "N-Now, B-B-Begone."
"Aye, mate," Dingodile replied as he exited the room. Coco, meanwhile, obediently seated herself in the lab's sole test chair without ever being told.
"W-Why, h-hello there, b-b-bandicoot," Brio greeted. "F-Fancy meeting you again, i-isn't it?"
"Oh, just kill me now, doctor," Coco shouted. "You're probably still bruised from when I drop kicked you."
"O-Oh, a-actually, I-I have far bigger b-bruises to deal with than the one you left on m-m-my…"
"Just get on with it! I know you want to use me for your boss' experiment, don't you?"
"W-Well, y-you're right about the e-e-experiment part…"
CB CB CB CB CB
Night has fallen on the trio of islands once more, and Crash and Aku finally made it to the island housing the Castle. But with little energy remaining from his swim, Crash was just panting as Aku seeked out a place to stay. While this went on, Crash just looked at his surroundings; besides the large and menacing castle in the distance, the beach looked relatively normal like the other islands' beaches did.
"Crash!" Aku beckoned from halfway across the beach. Crash weakly followed, rubbing his tummy gingerly as he had run out of wumpa fruit before leaving the second island.
When Crash finally arrived, Aku continued. "I found a small cave just small enough for you to sleep in." Crash smiled weakly as he situated himself inside the small, claustrophobic space for a good night's sleep.
"Sleep well, Crash," Aku said as Crash drifted to sleep. "You're gonna need it for tomorrow." As he required little sleep, Aku just travelled through the unspoiled woods to see what lies ahead for him and Crash. And, for the most part, the island looked nicely maintained, until he found a large complex that took up a significant portion of the island's tip.
"What on earth is this?" Aku asked. The complex was basically a large lump of metal, but when he finally did find a few windows, he was shocked to find perpetually neon green goo spread all throughout the building. In fact, above the first doorway he encountered, he saw the words "Cortex Power" plastered in large, thin, metal letters.
"Oh no," Aku uttered. "I should've known this island was too quiet. Looks like Crash and I have more work to do than we thought."
Hello Crash Bandicoot fans! Finally, I've got the latest chapter done, and the first game's arc is getting down to the wire now. Our heroes are finally on the last island, Coco is back in Brio's clutches, and we've got a cameo that was given to Dingodile. All fun, right? Well don't worry, because the best has yet to come.
Hopefully once I graduate from high school, updates can come more steadily, so just don't hold your breath until then. Also, if you haven't see, I've created a new Persona fanfic, so if that's your thing, be sure to check that out if you can, because boy have I been waiting to share that one.
Anyways, thanks once again for reading, and I hope you stick around for the next chapter!
Good night, and read on!
-rjm324