PSManiac: Hi everyone! This is PSManiac with the tenth chapter of Multiverse Mishap. Hooray for double digits! Anyway, I
only own the stuff that I own, nothing more, nothing less, and nothing in between more and less. Enjoy!
Chapter Ten: Mirror Misfortune
Crash ducked under N. Tangle's swinging mace and rolled behind the evil botanist. He was about to spin him, but N. Tangle
turned around and smacked the bandicoot in the face.
"This is a big disappointment for the 'great Crash Bandicoot,'" N. Tangle said, "I said 'great Crash Bandicoot' using
quotations, showing sarcasm."
N. Tangle fired large thorns at Crash, but he leapt and rolled out of the way. Crash saw a nearby thorn on the floor slowly
melt away the wood it was embedded in. N. Tangle swung at the bandicoot yet again with his mace. Crash ducked and
punched N. Tangle in the stomach. But the evil plant scientist's gut split in two and wrapped around the orange marsupial's
arm.
"I love being a plant!" N. Tangle laughed as he watched vines crawl from his stomach and onto Crash's arm.
Crash struggled to get free, but the vines were too strong. Thinking quickly, he grabbed one of N. Tangle's thorns that were
fired at the bandicoot previously and stabbed N. Tangle's chest with it. N. Tangle screamed in pain and stepped back. Crash
pulled his hand free and checked to see if it was okay. N. Tangle pulled the thorn out of his chest and laughed evilly.
"It's a good thing that the thorn's poison doesn't affect me," N. Tangle chuckled as his wound healed.
N. Tangle unsheathed two swords made out of plants and lunged at the bandicoot. Crash ducked and leaned his way out of
the swords' swings. He somersaulted backwards and vaulted forward before punching N. Tangle in the face. Doctor N.
Tangle fell on his back several feet away. Crash noticed that the foe has dropped one of his swords. He picked it up and got
in a fighting stance. N. Tangle, clutching his remaining sword in his right hand, looked up at Crash and grinned under his
flytrap helmet.
"This is going to be fun," he chuckled.
The two swords clashed over and over again. N. Tangle smiled when he saw that the bandicoot was losing energy.
N. Tangle held his arms out wide and asked, "Is that the best you got?"
Then, Crash kicked him where the sun doesn't shine. N. Tangle fell to his knees, clutching where Crash kicked him.
"Are the iron-toed shoes really necessary?" his now squeaky voice asked.
Crash nodded happily. N. Tangle snarled and slashed with his sword. Crash's pants fell down. Crash, as red as an angry
Uka Uka, pulled up his pants in embarrassment.
"Look at who's the embarrassed one now!" N. Tangle taunted.
He looked up as the elevator they were fighting on rose to a stop at the roof of the lumber mill.
"And here's my ride now," he said as he looked up at a menacing spaceship made out of plants.
The cockpit was a huge Venus flytrap head with the bridge of the ship visible in its mouth. It had wooden, moss-covered
wings with tree trunks strapped to them. The tree trunks had jets of flame shooting out from the bottom of the roots side of
the tree. The main body of the ship was made out of various kinds of plant life, with weeping willows covering the top. The
willows had tree houses stationed on them. A long tail of vines flowed out of the back of the ship with two huge leaves at
the very end, mimicking a whale's tail.
"Ladies and gentlemen… and Crash," N. Tangle said as Crash pouted at his last remark, "I bring you the pinnacle of plant-
based technology. A machine so great, that it would bring N. Terdimensional himself to his knees. I bring you The Green
Hurl!"
He turned to Crash.
"And you, my bandicoot friend, are going to have a very painful taste of this ship's power."
He laughed evilly.
The N- Team stared up at the huge creature made up of hundreds of thousands of Nanodroids. In addition to its mouth, the
Nanodroid beast has also formed arms, legs, and a spiked tail.
"Okay, I have a plan," Tropy said to Neo.
"Go to the bathroom?" N. Gin asked, "Because I really need to go right about now."
"Uhh, no" Tropy said before turning back to Neo, "I'll take the one on the left, and you'll take the several thousand on the
right."
"Ha ha, very funny Tropy," Neo said sarcastically.
"No, really, take the several thousand on the right."
"We'll squash these bugs in no time," Uka Uka said.
He floated up to the creature.
"Hey, ugly, look over here!" Uka Uka called.
The creature looked down at the angry little mask.
"Yeah, you!" Uka Uka yelled, "Get out of the way, or I'll have to squash you and your little friends. You do not want to make
me angry!"
The creature carelessly flicked Uka Uka away with its index finger like a bug. Uka Uka crashed into a mirrored wall and fell to
the floor. He slowly floated back up to his nonexistent feet.
"Did anyone catch the number of that train?" he dizzily asked.
Tropy sent a bolt of energy at the creature, but in split in two to avoid the blast.
"I can't hit those bugs!" Tropy called as he watched the Nanodroid creature reform.
The Nanodroids roared and lunged at Tropy. Tropy ducked and tried to electrocute the Nanodroids. Laughing evilly, the
Nanodroids avoided the blast and used their tail to knock the time scientist into a wall. Something spiky suddenly stuck into
the creature's metal skin. The Nanodroids turned around and saw Uka Uka, with a body of mirrors, holding a large mirror
shard. They roared again and shot a tentacle out of the creature's chest at Uka Uka.
"Bring it on, insects!" Uka Uka yelled.
He conjured up a mirror shield and blocked the tentacle's blows. The tentacle slid around the shield and walloped Uka Uka
in his wooden face. Uka Uka snarled and began stabbing the tentacle with the thin edge of the shield.
"Take that! And take that!" Uka Uka roared as he continued the stabbing, "Take that with a side of fries! Take this to the
bank!"
The tentacle reared back, and shot into Uka Uka's chest. The evil mask spirit fell onto his back. After a few seconds, he
shakily stood up.
"That was tingly," he said.
Uka Uka looked down and saw Nanodroids crawling all over his mirrored body.
"Ahh!" he screamed, "Get them off of me!"
He abandoned his mirror body and retreated beside Neo. However, instead of falling apart, the mirrored body stayed
standing.
"Is this good or bad?" Neo asked, "Or is it indifferent?"
The body shuddered slightly and took one step forward.
"The Nanodroids," Nina whispered as the mirrored body steadily walked closer to them, "It took over the body!"
The Mirror Armor (That's what I'm calling it) turned its left hand into a big spike. It looked up at the rest of the Nanodroids.
The Nanodroids looked back, smiled evilly, and turned to the N- Team.
"We're in trouble," Neo said, "Got anymore plans, Tropy?"
"I've got nothing," Tropy said.
The Nanodroid creature and the Mirror Armor walked closer to the N- Team, weapons ready.
N. Gin shuddered and said, "I don't need to use the bathroom anymore."
The rest of the N- Team looked at N. Gin, and they took a huge step away from him.
Three Tree Golems leapt down from The Green Hurl and positioned themselves around N. Tangle. The Evil Botanist gave the
Lakeside Violet Plant to one of them.
"Bring this up to The Green Hurl pronto!" he ordered, "I'll finish up this rodent down here."
The Tree Golem saluted and leapt back on the ship. N. Tangle turned back around to face Crash, but the marsupial has
disappeared.
"Where did he go?" he asked, "Tree Golems, find him!"
The two Tree Golems looked around for the bandicoot, but he doesn't seem to be anywhere. One of the Tree Golems, let's
call him Sal, saw Crash hanging onto the back of the other Golem, Hector. His fist moved in to punch the bandicoot, but
Crash jumped off. The fist collided with the Hector's back. Hector turned around and saw that it was Sal who punched him.
Hector slapped Sal across the face. Sal fumed and stomped on Hector's foot. Hector grabbed his foot and began bouncing
around in pain as Sal laughed at him. Hector snarled and kicked Sal in the stomach. That Tree Golem grabbed his stomach in
pain and fell to the floor in the fetal position. A few seconds later, the two Golems were having a slap fight. N. tangle rested
the palm of his hand against his forehead.
"Why do I have to work with such morons?" he asked himself, "All bark, but no brains."
The two Tree Golems heard someone whistle. They turned to the source of the whistle and saw Crash standing there. The
bandicoot pointed down, and Sal and Hector looked down to see that they had fought off of the mill's roof, and they are
now standing in midair. They looked up, gulped, and plummeted down from the unusually tall lumber mill. Crash looked
down and waved goodbye as they fell. Suddenly, a green vine wrapped itself around Crash and lifted him into the air. He
saw that the vine was coming out of N. Tangle's sleeve instead of his hand.
"Did you really think you can escape me, mammal?" the source of the vine, N. Tangle, said.
Crash nodded.
"That was a rhetorical question," N. Tangle explained, "But, I'll guess you'll be taking that information to your grave. Any last
words, bandicoot?"
Crash looked at N. Tangle.
"Oh yeah, you can't speak."
The vines squeezed tighter around the poor bandicoot as he struggled to get free. Thinking quickly, which is quite a feat for
Crash, he bit the vine. N. Tangle screamed in pain and released Crash. The bandicoot fell to the floor on his knees and
slowly returned to his feet. The vine slithered back into N. Tangle's sleeve and transformed into his hand.
"How dare you!" N. Tangle yelled, "You, a disgusting animal, bit me! The disgusting animal saliva of your kind are all over my
hand! You are asking for it now!"
The Green Hurl turned to Crash and began firing fiery seeds at him. Crash leapt out of the way of the seeds' path. N. Tangle
used a vine to climb aboard The Green Hurl.
"Bring out the Cutter Leaves!" he ordered the ship.
A huge, circular saw made out of plants was lowered from the bottom of the ship. It was attached to the ship by means of a
Y-shaped stick. The Cutter Leaves spun and moved towards the bandicoot. Crash jumped out of the way of the huge saw's
path of destruction. Crash avoided several more swipes of the Cutter leaves. He noticed that two mushrooms were being
used as bolts to keep the Cutter Leaves attached to the stick. He spun the first one, and it became looser.
"Fire!" n. Tangle ordered, and the ship began firing thorns at Crash.
To avoid the thorns, Crash back-flipped and spun the mushroom again.
"One of the mushroom bolts is becoming loose!" N. Tangle exclaimed, "Tree Golems! Get him!"
Two Tree Golems leapt from the ship and onto the elevator platform. Crash jumped up and spun the Tree Golems' weak
points. The two Golems exploded into bark and leaves, and all-around compost.
Crash spun the mushroom once again, and it bounced off.
"I will get you for that bandicoot!" N. Tangle roared as he leapt back onto the elevator platform, "Right here, right now!"
The Nanodroid creature and the Mirror Armor attack the N- Team. Our villainous heroes quickly avoided their attacks.
"This… is… getting… really… annoying!" Uka Uka said, avoiding attacks between words.
"You… said… it!" Neo stated, in the same situation as Uka uka.
"Why… are… we… talking… like… this?"Uka Uka asked.
"I… have… no… idea," Neo explained.
"Activate… warp… speed… Spock," said Captain Kirk.
Everyone stopped fighting.
"Captain Kirk?" Neo asked, "What are you doing here?"
"So… you… are… not… Spock?" asked Kirk, "And… this… place… is… not… my… ship?"
"Uhhh, no," explained Tropy.
"I'll… just… be… going… then," Kirk said, "Beam… me… up… Scotty."
Kirk disappeared.
"Something is definitely wrong with the author, today," Neo explained.
Everyone else nodded in agreement.
"Now, where were we?" asked Neo.
Mirror Armor tried to stab Cortex with its shield, but Cortex leaned back in a Matrix-style way, and avoided the stab. Cortex
stood back up.
"I didn't hurt my back doing that!" Cortex cheered, "Hooray!"
Neo thrust his arms in the air in celebration, and there was a loud crack.
"Uh oh," he said, "Now I did."
Nina leapt up and punched Mirror Armor in the back, but her fist bounced off.
"I hate these mirrors!" she yelled.
Tropy tried to blast the Mirror Armor, but it just bounced off of the living mirror body and through the exit.
"Come here, traitor!" Uka Uka yelled as he leapt at the Mirror Armor from behind with a new body. The Mirror Armor, without
looking behind him, stepped out of the way. Uka Uka crashed into a wall.
"Maybe you shouldn't do that yelling thing," Cortex suggested.
Uka Uka snarled and launched a mirror spike at Neo. Cortex gasped and ducked down. He got up and glanced behind
himself to see the mirror spike embedded two feet into the wall.
"That is, I believe, seven years of bad luck," Tropy pointed out.
"You know well enough that I don't believe in that impossible 'Bad luck' mumbo jumbo," Uka Uka said before the Mirror
Armor punched Uka Uka into a wall.
"Okay, so it's not impossible mumbo jumbo," Uka Uka said, his voice muffled by the wall, "It's improbable."
Nanodroid creature kicked Uka Uka.
"Okay! I believe in it now!" Uka Uka screamed into the sky.
"Who's he talking to?" Neo whispered to Tropy.
"I don't know," Tropy whispered back, "Just smile as if there's nothing wrong and walk away slowly."
"I heard you two!" Uka Uka roared.
"How can he?" Cortex asked, "He doesn't have any ears."
"I…" Uka Uka began before pausing for a moment, "Actually, I don't know."
"Huh," Cortex said, "How weird. Now, where were we?"
Actually, we are just about to check up on Crash and see how he's doing.
"Right now?" N. Gin asked.
Right about… now.
Up on the roof of Hairy Mole's Lumber Mill, our bandicoot hero, Crash, quickly dodged N. Tangle's attacks and the swipes of
the Cutter Leaves.
"You can't win, marsupial," N. Tangle stated, "With the combined might of my powers and The Green Hurl's powers, we're
unstoppable!"
N. Tangle launched several thorns at Crash, who back flipped to avoid the poisonous thorns. He ran around the elevator
platform at N. Tangle continued to hurl thorns at our hero. Crash quickly jumped over the Cutter Leaves and spun the
remaining mushroom bolt, making it looser.
"Keep away from that mushroom bolt, rodent!" N. Tangle order as he launched more thorns.
Crash leapt out of the way and punched N. Tangle in the face. N. Tangle, angered, grabbed Crash be the throat and lifted
him off the ground.
"Wrong move, rodent," N. Tangle said as his hand squeezed tighter around the bandicoot's throat.
Crash struggled, and tried to kick N. Tangle, but the evil botanist caught his foot.
"I don't think so, bandicoot," N. Tangle said.
Crash struggled some more, and burped loudly in N. Tangle's face. N. Tangle let go of Crash's neck and stepped back,
waving his hand in front of his face.
"Man, that reeks!" he yelled, "Lay off the onions for a while and… wait, I'm a plant! I don't have a nose!"
Before you can say, "Bamboozled Oxymoronic Sarsaparilla," Crash spun at N. Tangle. N. Tangle was thrown back, into the
mushroom bolt. As Doctor N. Tangle sat there, winded, the bolt fell off. The Cutter Leaves bounced around all over the place
before crashing into The Green Hurl and bouncing into the forest. The ship jolted and shook, and something fell from the ship
and into the forest below.
N. Tangle leapt onto the ship and commanded, "Let's get out of here!"
The ship began to rise into space.
"We will meet again, Crash Bandicoot!" N. Tangle called, "And it will be for the last time!"
In a blink of an eye, the ship has disappeared into space.
Suddenly, the elevator began to move back down into the mill. A few minutes later, the elevator returned to the Mill's main
room. Crash's friends stood there, cheering for their victory.
"We won Crash!" Coco exclaimed, "The aphids ate the Tree Golems! Wahoo!"
"Oh, I found this here thing in tha forest," Billy Bob said as he retrieved a power crystal from his pocket, "It fell outta Doctor
N. Tangle's ship."
All of the windows broke.
"Billy Bob!" Everyone yelled.
Later, the bandicoots were back at the Tree House City of the Secret Squirrels. The five of them were standing in a row as
Gray Squirrel stuck medals on their chest. Gray Squirrel stopped at Aku Aku, wondering where to put the medal. So, he
stuck it on Aku Aku's forehead. Gray Squirrel stepped back and he and the other Secret Squirrels saluted the bandicoots.
The bandicoots saluted back at them.
"Thanks, but do you guys know how to travel to the next world?" Coco asked.
A single Brown Secret Squirrel dragged into the room a newly repaired Billy Bob's Jeep.
"Why, thank ya'll!" Billy Bob thanked.
The Brown Squirrel, panting heavily, gave them a thumbs-up and fainted from exhaustion.
"Let's go!" Aku Aku called.
Crash jumped into the Jeep and painfully landed on the stick shift.
"Isn't that where the passenger seat supposed to be?" Crunch asked as he looked at Gray Squirrel.
Gray Squirrel smiled nervously and shrugged.
The N- Team watched as Mirror Armor and The Nanodroid creature played tennis with Cortex as the ball.
"Doctor Cortex!" N. Gin called, "Are you alright?"
"Does… Ouch! It… Ow! Look… Ugh! Like… Agh! I'm… Oh! Alright?" Neo asked between smacks.
"There has be a setting on your blaster that can defeat these creeps!" Nina yelled.
"I… Owie! Think… Gah! There… Uh! Is!" Neo said.
Mirror Armor failed to whack a return, so Cortex crashed into a mirrored wall. Neo quickly spun through his blaster settings
as the two Nanodroid enemies walked closer. Cortex closed his eyes and blasted the two enemies. He opened his eyes and
saw that the Nanodroid creature and Mirror Armor were… wearing tutus?
"Oops, wrong one," Cortex said.
The two Nanodroids looked down at their tutus and continued to advance towards the box-headed scientist.
"Please work," Neo begged as he changed the setting.
He pulled the trigger and a stream of bubbles emerged from the barrel of the blaster.
"No, no, no!" Cortex exclaimed, changing the setting yet again.
Mirror armor began reaching out to grab Cortex, but the mad scientist shot the two bosses with a blast of energy. Mirror
Armor and the Nanodroid creature were blasted back into the opposite wall.
"What did you do to them?" Nina asked as she watched them begin to fall apart.
"EMP blast," Cortex explaind, "It shut down the Nanodroids' systems. It fried their circuits completely."
"I never knew that you can do anything so cool!" Uka Uka praised.
"Well, I am a pro at the blaster," Cortex said, posing with the blaster.
Then, the blaster went off, and the blast bounced around the room before frying Uka Uka's backside.
"Cortex!" Uka Uka furiously roared.
"Hey, we have some survivors down here!" someone called.
"Wha… who's there?" Cortex asked.
"Beam them up!" someone else called.
Next thing the N- team knew, there was a bright flash of light and they appeared in a high tech spaceship bridge.
"Yo, dudes, what's up?" Someone with a surfer dude accent asked from behind them.
The N- Team spun around, weapons at the ready, to face the mysterious speaker. The speaker turned out to be a penguin
wearing a red jumpsuit, a black belt, and sunglasses. Also, a milkshake was held in his left hand… err… flipper. The N- team
lowered their weapons.
"Who are you?" Neo asked.
"I'm, like, Brad," the penguin, Brad, answered.
"Well, 'Brad,' if that is your real name," Cortex said, "Where are we?"
"You guys should, like, look outside," Brad suggested, pointing to a nearby window.
The N- Team walked over to the window and gazed outside. They saw a barren wasteland with vast deserts, green rivers
of acid, an orange sky, and volcanoes spewing green clouds of smoke that occupied most of the sky.
"I apologize for my absence," said a hedgehog that has just entered the bridge, "My quills got stuck in a door.
The hedgehog was wearing blue jumpsuit, silver shoulder pads, and a gray belt. He also had a red circle on the chest area
of his jumpsuit.
"I guess that introductions are in order," he said, "I am Commander Quill, and this is Private Brad."
Brad muttered a "'Sup?" to the N- Team.
"I welcome you," Quill said, "to both the Voyager XX-9 base, and to the barren world of Sulfrix."
N. Tangle walked up to one of the Venus Flytraps that were controlling The Green Hurl.
"Are there any damages?" N. Tangle asked.
"Nothing too serious," the flytrap answered, "But our backup generator lost its fuel source, the Power Crystal."
N. Tangle sighed and walked into another room.
"Soon, those bandicoots will taste my fury," he said to himself, "But I believe that it is time to 'introduce' myself to Cortex
and his minions."
He looked up to something that was floating in the middle of the room.
"And with you," N. Tangle said, "There will be no stopping the fall of the Animal Empire, and the rise of the Rule of Plants."
Floating in the middle of the room was a huge, black power gem.
Next time on Crash: Multiverse Mishap…
The bandicoots travel to the next world on their mission to find a way back home. Meanwhile, the N- Team must find any
power crystals in the barren wasteland world, Sulfrix. What is N. Tangle planning? What about Wolfgang? Will our heroes
triumph, or will evil rise to power? Find out the answers to these questions in Chapter Eleven: Rancid Acid.
PSManiac: Review and suggest everyone!