Crash Bandicoot 4: The Wrath of Cortex
Retold by Mutitoon90
Chapter Ten
Nathan knew that Luna would not allow Coco to come, but the younger Bandicoot sibling did not enjoy being left behind and leapt in after the werewolf and the ancient mask that was Aku-Aku. The lone human male knew that Luna would get a little annoyed, but she would allow the Bandicoot girl to remain with her.
However, Nathan was starting to worry about the trio, since it was taking a little longer than he expected. Then, he recalled Pheobe, who located the temple of Agni, and became concerned about the she-wolf, whom Pheobe had declared war against out of simple jealousy. Hoping that he was wrong about the assumption, Nathan was ready to call Luna, when the portal activated, telling the black-haired young man that the group was returning.
"Guys!" Nathan shouted in relief, happy that the trio were back on Wumpa Island. Then, he noticed that there was a fourth person in the returning party.
The fourth member was an older man with graying brown hair, blue eyes that shined as shiny as a silver bullet and slightly tanned skin. The man wore a dark green T-shirt, a pair of blue jeans and a pair of tennis shoes, which looked almost like Luna's attire.
When both him and the older man made eye contact with each other, Nathan felt like that someone was aiming a pair of silver daggers at him. This told the young man that the fourth member of the group was Luna's father!
"So," the man spoke a minute of seeing Nathan, "you're the one that Pheobe's been telling the whole family about the terrible things that you've done to Luna and her."
"What-" Nathan started to respond, but Brio ran out to the portal room, where everyone could see him in a panicked state.
"PHEOBE'S HERE!? RUN FOR COVER! HIDE THE CHILDREN AND YOURSELVES! A REAL MONSTER'S ON THE LOOSE!"
Stunned at the sight of the smaller man in a complete panic, Artemis Fang recovered himself and said as he placed a hand on his aging face, "Pheobe's been lying to the family again."
"I told ya so, Dad." Luna sighed out, knowing that the only way Pheobe would have gotten away with lying is if Brio was not panicking at the mere mention of the blonde werewolf's name.
The elder Fang's next gaze to Nathan was softened as a sheepish grin appeared on the middle-aged man's face. With a sigh of relief, Artemis said, "I'm sorry about my attitude toward you, Nathan. Pheobe's been saying all kinds of nasty stuff about you for the last few years."
"Really?" A dumbfounded Nathan rose an eyebrow at the explaination, and then he turned to Luna and stated, "You weren't joking about her inability to take rejection well."
Luna only shrugged her shoulders, silently saying, 'What else could I have said?' Artemis, however, was curious about what Nathan had said.
"What did he mean by that?"
"Dad," Luna answered her father's inquiry, having a bad feeling that it might turn into an agruement, "Pheobe only went after Nathan, because he was trying to ask for my assistance to help him to stop his nutcase of an uncle from conquering the world, which she mistook for a show of affection towards me. She tried to seduce Nathan into 'leaving me,' which Nathan tried to correct her."
"He didn't!" The father of Luna exclaimed, knowing how Pheobe despised being corrected by anyone, as his daughter sadly shook her head and said, "Yep, he did."
Nathan just sighed, knowing what had happened next: in a fit of fury, Pheobe tried to attack, and maybe kill, him, but the boy escaped in time to evade the execution. Pheobe turned her attenation to Brio and captured the poor man. What happened during the time of the doctor's imprisonment was still a mystery to both Luna and Nathan; Brio was too traumatized from that time to tell anyone, and he would panic everytime that anyone would say the blonde she-wolf's name.
"Well," Artemis Fang announced, "now I've got to tell her father that his child's been lying to the whole family again."
"Later, Dad." Luna announced to her father, "There're bigger problems than Pheobe's bad habits."
"Luna's right." Nathan agreed with the brunette she-wolf, "While Luna went after the relic of Quetzalcoatl, winds have picked up to insane speeds, and lightning's been seen, but no fire's have been started yet."
"Lightning?" Gulpped a fearful Luna, who suffered a fear of lightning, "Why?"
"I really don't know." The man with the dark eyes replied, "However, I can only assume that the Elemental of Air might be involved with the sudden storm."
"Great..." Moaned a depressed Luna, knowing that she never was happy about being near lightning storms ever since her cousin was strike by a bolt.
Coco, who dashed off to find her older brother, returned to the portal room with Crash, who was awakened by the sound of a tree falling onto the ground. Aku-Aku had accompanied her, having sensed that Crash had been barricaded in his own house by the fallen tree that woke up the male.
"Hey, guys!" Coco started out to the trio, "Brio's outside, raving about someone named 'Pheobe.' Does anyone know what or who's he's talking about?"
"All too well." Nathan, Luna and Artemis said in unison, surprising not only the Bandicoot siblings, but themselves as well.
Then, a crash of lightning flashed, and its intense light flashed into the room, causing to yell out before latching herself to Nathan. The thunder followed the the flash of lightning and roared as the Bandicoots, Aku-Aku and Artemis stared at the embrace.
Nathan was blushing at Luna's sudden grab and how his arms were around Luna's body, and the strength in the she-wolf's hands on his shoulders as she gripped tighter in a reaction of fear. Taking a deep breath, Nathan said, "Luna, it's all right. You're okay."
A moment passed before she slowly pulled herself from Nathan, blushing red from realizing that she grabbed onto Nathan in a moment of fear in front of her friends, but she did it in front of her father. Worried what her father's reaction was, she turned to the elder's direction, and she saw that his back was turned from her and Nathan, telling her that he was trying to keep himself from ripping Nathan into pieces.
"Luna, what's your dad doing?" Nathan asked with a tone of fear in his own voice, and Luna answered with a shaky voice, "He's got a few issues of me being with guys."
"Oh..." Nathan realized that he was entering into "Artemis's territory," making him a target for anything that Luna's father might do to him.
"Don't worry about it, Nathan." Luna tried to ease the male's mind, "He's been acting like this for years, and you're not the first to cause Dad any distress about things like this."
"That's not helping, Luna." A nervous Nathan responded to the attempt, "Besides, your father's more frightening than most fathers with letting go issues."
"What?!" Artemis's ears perked up in their wolf form before turning to his daughter, "Did you tell him about... your... kind?"
"Nope." Luna answered to her father in a blunt tone of voice, "He found out after he kicked my tail in a fight."
That was a shock to the older Fang male, who said, "How did you lose a fight with a non-werewolf?"
"That's not within my knowledge, Dad." Luna shrugged her shoulders to her father, "All I know is that he knocked me onto my tail."
"Maybe I should help Crash and Coco deal with the Air Elemental, while you and your father, if he wants to, make sure that things down here are all right." Nathan suggested to the she-wolf, who was quick to agree with the human.
"Right, you guy better get going, before the Wumpa Islands get in worse shape than they already are."
With that, the Bandicoots, Nathan and Aku-Aku went off to the planes that Nathan had been working on, while Luna was in South America.
The werewolves were left behind. Artemis looked at his daughter, who whispered a small prayer for her friends, and after hearing this, Artemis Fang hoped for the saftey of Luna's friends. He knew that the friends were going to need the prayer and a lot of luck to defeat the remaining Elemental.
Soon, Nathan, Crash, Coco and Aku-Aku were at the hanger that kept the planes safe from outside forces. Next to the plane that Nathan's intended plane, which was white and silver, there was the Sword of Agni.
"What's that doing here, Nathan?" Coco asked upon seeing the glove-hilted blade, which Nathan picked up.
"When the storm started, I recalled that Agni was the god of fire and its three origins, and one of them is lightning." The ex-hier of the Cortex clan explained to the younger Bandicoot, who made an assumption.
"I see, you might be able to redirect the lightning from us, and maybe towards him. That's a good idea, Nathan!"
"It's better than nothing." Nathan stated before asking Coco, "Do you have the relic, Coco. We're going to need it for the oncoming fight."
"I don't have it." The blonde Bandicoot answered, "I thought Luna had it."
"I have it." A deep voice announced, causing the four to turned to the direction of the voice's owner: Artemis Fang.
"What are you doing here?" Nathan asked Luna's father, who approached him and give him the Dagger of Quetzalcoatl.
"Simple," the male werewolf replied to an artful smile, "I'm helping my daughter's friends. That's all."
Nathan did not exactly trust Artemis, but he had no choose, since the older man had given him the dagger that could end the Elementals' reign of terror. So, Nathan said, "Thank you."
"Not a problem." Artemis replied gracefully, which was a little too much for Nathan, as the old wolfman walked away from the confused foursome.
"Don't worry, Nathan." Aku-Aku finally spoke up to the young man, "You have nothing to hide from anyone."
Nathan was confused about the mask's words, but he remembered that he had bigger problems to deal with, and the situation with Luna's father will have to wait. Turning to Crash and Coco, the former Cortex said, "Let's go guys."
"Right!" The Bandicoots shouted in agreement with the human male before each member of the trio went to their respective airplane.
Each of the planes' engines revved up, causing the propellers to spin to allow the aircrafts to fly. To allow the chance to fly more possible, the hanger's doors opened wide, which allowed some time to pilots to pull on their goggles, helmets and scarfs.
"Ready, guys?" Nathan asked through the communication device that was in his helmet, which transmitted the voices of Crash and Coco.
"Ready!"
"I'm waiting your okay, Nathan!"
"Let's fly!" Nathan shouted out as he led the way out of the hanger.
Following Nathan was Crash, who was an orange plane that was followed by Coco's blue plane. As the three planes used the flat, rock surface as a runway, Nathan's white plane lifed off, followed by the orange and blue planes, and the trio of planes was followed by Aku-Aku as they flew into the dark storm clouds.
"Wow!" Coco's green eyes were wide with awe upon seeing the inside of the dark storm clouds, only to have Nathan's voice to pull her attention back to the mission.
"Coco, pay attention! We're not here for a sightseeing trip, but we're here to stop the Air Elemental."
Crash, having heard this from the human, spoke into his communication device, "I guess a picnic's out of the question."
"CRASH!" Roared the voices of Nathan, Crash's best friend, and Coco, the Bandicoot's sister; both of them were annoyed with Crash's food-directed thoughts.
Then, a booming voice announced itself to the plane-flying trio, saying, "WELL, CRASH BANDICOOT AND FRIENDS, IT'S SO NICE FOR YOU TO JOIN US IN THE STORM!"
The three friends looked and saw a huge, genie-like Crunch, but the allies of Wumpa Islands were that they were being spoken to by the Air Elemental.
Grabbing a CB radio, activating the megaphone feature that he had built in it and asked in a somewhat demanding voice, "Who are you?"
"HA, HA, HA! I AM LO-LO, THE AIR ELEMENTAL AND THE ONE THAT WILL DESTORY YOU!"
"That's a confident statement!" Nathan's voice echoed to the huge entity, "If you're that sure about your victory, then you better be quick!"
Hearing this, Crash and Coco shout out praises to the young man, but Lo-Lo, who was fused with Crunch, glared at the three airplanes.
"SO, THAT'S HOW YOU TWERPS WANNA PLAY, EH?" A dark grin appeared on the giant's face, "FINE, IT'S ABOUT TIME TO SEE IF YOU KIDS CAN EARN YOUR WINGS."
The announcement caused Nathan, as well as the Bandicoots, to become uneasy, but none of the group were willing to allow the huge being to intimidate them.
"Time to show this joker that we do mean business." Nathan called to Crash and Coco, who both agreed with the their human friend.
"Right." Nathan smiled upon hearing the siblings' unison of mind and confirmation with his words. Then, he said, "Let's do it."
The planes flew around the giant, genie-like bandicoot, who swatted at them, like the planes were flies, and Nathan was ready to use the dagger that was made of volcanic glass to defeat the Air Elemental.
"IF YOU THINK THAT IS ALL I'M ABLE TO DO," announced Lo-Lo, who had a dark grin on Crunch's face, "THEN THE JOKE'S ON YOU!"
Then, Lo-Lo raise a hand to the planes, and a whirlwind blew out to the trio. This caused the siblings and their friend to panic.
"Look out!" Nathan shouted out, trying to remain calm with little success.
"No kidding!" Crash's voice rang out to the human male as the orange plane managed to evade the blast of air.
"CRASH!" Coco screamed out on the radio to her older brother, harming the ears of both males.
"I'm fine, Coco!" Crash yelled back, sparking an arguement with his own younger sister, which annoyed the young man.
Nathan looked at Lo-Lo and saw lightning in the left hand, causing Nathan to call his friends to get them to stop arguing long enough for them to be able to fight off the Elemental.
"Guys, we've got trouble! Stop arguing and start paying attention, before you two find out another meaning of 'getting fried!'"
Nathan's words had reached their targets, because the orange and blue planes flew off the shooting bolts of lightning, allowing Nathan a momentary sigh of relief. Then, the young man saw that a bolt was flying towards him.
"Not a bad idea!" Nathan shouted as he pull out Agni's Sword from behind his seat without turning around in his seat, "But you need a better plan."
Then, the bolt flew into the relic, and Nathan was grateful that Luna was very informative about the relics and the ones that wielded the weapons. Also, Luna was well-educated about the elements that the relics controlled.
Knowing that he needed to discharge the sword of the electrical power it had absorbed, Nathan aimed it at the Crunch-like face of Lo-Lo. The returned attack hit the Elemental right on the face, causing Lo-Lo to bellow in angst.
"THAT'S NOT FUNNY! YOU'RE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT, NATHAN, AND DON'T CARE WHAT CORTEX TOLD ME NOT TO DO!"
"Sounds like Cortex is worried about you, Nathan." Coco's voice rang out to the human's ears, causing the lone human to respond in a sad tone of voice.
"Actually, he's worried about my biological father getting a hold of him, if I was harmed by him."
The Bandicoot siblings were saddened to hear about a small part of Nathan's past before arriving onto the Wumpa Islands, but they returned to reality when Nathan called out to Coco.
"Coco," the human's voice rang out, startling the blonde bandicoot, "I've got a plan! Wanna hear it?"
"You're forgetting who you're talking to, Nathan." The lone female of the trio announced to Nathan through the radio, "I wanna hear it."
"Hey!" Crash shouted at Nathan, which Coco heard the contents of the conversation, "Don't forget about me!"
"Don't worry, Crash." Coco heard Nathan's response, "You're a big part of the plan, but you might not like it very much."
"I know what I don't like; I'm up hundreds, if not thousands, of feet in the air, fighting off an opponent that is going to attack me, wheter or not that he is wearing a destructive mask from ancient times, with my best friend and my younger sister. It's safe to say that I don't like very much already."
A moment of silence would have came onto the group, but Lo-Lo stirred up another whirlwind, causing the trio to pilot their planes from the supernatural storm.
"We need that plan quick, Nathan!" Coco shouted into her airplane's radio in an attempt to get Nathan's attention.
"I know!" Nathan shouted back at the she-bandicoot via radio, "Crash, if you can hear me, go annoy Lo-Lo, while I help Coco with the plan!"
"Aw, come on!" Moaned the male Bandicoot upon hearing what his friend had said, "I don't wanna do that!"
"Sorry, Crash." Nathan responded, "This is an emergency, and you've just pulled the short straw."
Coco heard her brother's voice send curses to Nathan through the radio; some of the words caused the Bandicoot girl to blush. Nathan yelled back at Crash without the profanity. Then, Coco Bandicoot, in an annoyed state of mind, shouted out.
"STOP IT!"
That shout ended the cussing contest of the feuding males, however the shout managed to help the males to notice the whirlwind that was heading towards them.
"Look out!" Nathan shouted into the receiver of the radio as the white, blue and orange planes evaded the winds.
"That's too close!" Crash wiped the sweat from his brow as he sighed in relief. Then, he used the radio to ask, "You two okay?"
"I'm okay." Coco announced, which Nathan added on by saying, "Same here. Ready to execute the plan?"
"As I'll ever be." The male Bandicoot sighed out before saying, "I know I'm not gonna like doing this... at all."
Crash flew the plane to the face of Lo-Lo that was in the form of Crunch Bandicoot, and the male Bandicoot used the megaphone to shout at the Elemental.
"Hey! Lo-Lo! You're not so tough if you're using another creature to active your powers!"
"DON'T BE SO QUICK TO ASSUME THAT YOU'LL WIN, CRASH!" Shouted out a growling Lo-Lo, "I DO ENJOY FRIED FLESH!"
"I prefer baked fruits." Crash announced in response to the seemingly-joking being, who tried to summon another windstorm at Crash's aircraft.
The male of the Bandicoot siblings was quick to evade the blasting wind with his plane; he knew that Nathan needed a distraction to keep Lo-Lo from attacking him and Coco, while he gave Quetzalcoatl's dagger to her.
"Ha!" Crash mocked the Elemental, whose face was red as a beet in fury, "Tiny can do better than that, and he's still trying to get back at Luna!"
Lo-Lo was not amused by the comment in his moment of fury towards the male Bandicoot, and for a moment, Crash thought Crunch was going to remove the Elemental mask off of his own face and attack him.
"It's not looking good if Lo-Lo doesn't follow me." The elder Bandicoot sibling said to himself, knowing that his allies needed enough time to trade off the relic of the air.
Then, Lo-Lo's left hand was aimed at Crash's airplane, surging with electricity with the intent to destory the orange plane, pilot and all.
"Not good!" Crash yelled out into the sky, and then he grabbed the radio receiver and shouted out, "NOT GOOD!"
"We heard you the first time, Crash!" Coco shouted back via radio, "We're ready to execute the plan!"
"MAKE IT QUICK!" Crash returned a shout to his only sister, who said in a calmer voice, "You're going to be all right."
"I surely hope so." The male of the Bandicoot siblings said under his breath as the Air Elemental continued to aim his left arm, which was surrounded by electrical energy, at the orange aircraft.
"THIS IS GOING TO HURT YOU FAR MORE THAN IT'S EVER GONNA HURT ME!" Lo-Lo grinned darkly before firing a bolt of electricity at Crash, who braced for the shocking strike.
Then, the white plane flew into the line of fire, and Nathan used the Sword of Agni to absorb the attack.
"NOT AGAIN!" Lo-Lo shouted out as Nathan redirected the lightning jolt back at the one the shot it: Lo-Lo. A roar of pain echoed into the air, and it reached to the ears of those that were still on the islands.
Coco's plane flew towards the Elemental's face with a harpoon-like weapon appearing under the plane, which had the Dagger of Quetzalcoatl tied to it.
"Now," Coco stated under her breath and towards the somewhat ethereal being, "this ends here."
As she finished the statement, the pre-teen Bandicoot pressed a button, which released the dagger and the projectile it was attached tied to, and they went towards the face of Lo-Lo, the last of Elementals.
Lo-Lo had little time to react to the on-coming relic, which hit its intented target, and the Dagger of Quetzalcoatl pierced into the mask of the Air Elemental. The last of the Elementals bellowed louder than he had done preiously as his form dissolved and his power was absorbed by the relic.
Then, the entity exploded, and it was bigger than what the trio had expected to happen. The blast sent the three planes into a nosedive, but all three managed to pull their planes upright before they landed.
As they landed back on solid ground on Wumpa Island, they were greeted by cheering residents of the island; they were free from the Elementals' reign of terror, and they were happy about it too.
"Way ta go, guys." Ami of the Trophy Sisters shouted out as she ran towards Crash's orange plane with her sisters.
Following the four sisters was Mario Potoroo, who wanted to see Coco, and Artemis and Luna Fang.
"What happened up there?" Mario asked Coco, who had just removed herself from the airplane and was ready to have solid earth under her feet once again.
"I've heard it over the radio." Artemis Fang announced, which his daughter responded by glaring at him with a distrusting look. Seeing this, Luna's father countinued by saying, "He told Coco to fire the relic into Lo-Lo's face, which worked out very well."
"What about the dagger?" Crash asked to Nathan and Coco, which both had no answer to the inquiry.
"Don't worry about it, Crash." Luna was the one to answer Crash's question, "I was told by Dad to go get an old friend of ours."
"Who?" Crash asked, which earned the male Bandicoot a small collection of odd looks from his friends; Luna gave a look of pity at the questioning marsupial, Coco rolled her green eyes to the air, Nathan shook his head with a chuckle in his voice, and the rest just had a look that said, 'You've got to be joking, Crash.'
Then, a beam of silver light streaked across in blue sky, grabbing the attentions of everyone on the three islands. As the light danced above the islands, everyone knew right away who the beam of light was.
"Hey, it's Sash!"
"Luna's cousin's back!"
"She's so cool!"
"So is the dancing!"
Then, the beam went to and landed next to the three planes, blinding everyone there and nearby. Once the light dimmed and faded away, the nearest group unshielded their eyes and saw a silver-haired Sash.
"Sash!" Everyone, except for Luna and Artemis, shouted as they ran towards the moon mystic, who was just as happy to see them.
"It's so good to see you again, Sash!" Coco jumped up and down with glee as she arrived to reach Sash first.
"Likewise to you too, Coco." The miko smiled as she tried to remove the dust that was on her black vest and pants and white blouse.
Then, Crash arrived and asked, "Why didn't you wear your red and white outfit? It looked good on you."
"Sorry, Crash." Sash shrugged her shoulders as she answered the question, "The only time would be wearing my robes is either doing my duties at the temple or if it was an emergency, and I had forgotten to change my clothes."
"Well, those are the brakes." Crash returned with a shrug of his own as the Trophy Sisters started to ask about the outfit in question.
As Sash tried to answer the inquiries of the sisters, Nathan looked at Luna and saw her giggling, knowing that Sash would have a somewhat difficult time to answer some of the questions. Then, Nathan's attention turned towards Luna's father, whose eyes are still hard as they turned to the former Cortex, but they were a little softer.
Then, Artemis Fang went towards Nathan, who did not know what was going to happen, but he stopped in his track and turned to his child.
"Come here, Luna."
The female werewolf looked a little nervous, which added more fear into Nathan, and she obeyed, knowing what she was going to see something from her father.
Nathan gulped loudly, fearing about the worst and hoping for the best, as he saw Luna reach he father's side. What he heard from Artemis Fang was a shock to him and Luna.
"Nathan, I've heard very nasty things about you from Pheobe, and as a father, I had to assume the worst about you. However, given Pheobe's personal record of lying to anyone and everyone, I had hoped that she was only saying those things for whatever reason, let be real or petty. Now, I've heard and seen you in action, so I'm hoping that you could forgive me being doubtful of you."
A few moments of silence passed before Nathan recomposed himself and gave his reply to the werewolf that was asking for forgiveness.
"You can have it. Besides, I'm really jealous of Luna right, since she's lucky enough to have you for a father."
"As I've heard from Luna." Artemis replied as he motioned his daughter to enter the conversation, "Besides, she's got her grandfather's empathic capabilities."
That single statement aroused Nathan's fury as the ex-Cortex turned to the she-wolf, who lack any fearful expressions on her face.
"Luna, why didn't you tell me about your empathic capabilities?"
"Easy," Luna chuckled a little as she answered the question, "you never asked me or Sash."
Hearing this, Nathan slapped his hand onto his forehead and slid it down his face as a way to express his annoyance.
"Just like her mother..." Artemis moaned out as he heard his daughter's reply, which reminded him of his relationship with his wife and Luna's mother.
Then, Sash went to the three and spoke to them, which perked up their curiosity; Sash would normally be talking to her friends to catch up with them, but something else was the focus of her attention.
"What is it, Sash?" Luna asked, truly and deeply concerned about her cousin from her mother's side of the family.
"Things involving the Elementals are not over yet." Sash announced as she pulled out the Dagger of Quetzalcotl from her back pocket.
"Let's go to the portal room." Nathan spoke up to the silver werewolf, "We might be able to figure a few things out."
"Right." Sash agreed verbally as her cousin and uncle by marriage nodded with agreement with the non-werewolf.
Nathan told the werewolves to go ahead of him, while he went to get the marsupials to come with him to the portal room.