'N All Were Silent

Author's note: For some reason, all these chapters are fire related…Thank you for reading and keep it up! ^_^

Lacuna means a blank space

Reply to PC 20XX: Squeeee! The First Review Reward goes to you! Thank you for reviewing! You have no idea how much I need that. Yes, Doctor Ticks seems a little blue about N. Brio's decision to not be treated like a footnote. It has to be a sad life, getting your stuff taken from you. You know what they say about people like Ticks though, they're more then likely to take it out on the weakest creature…Once again, thank you so much! I hope you keep reading and enjoying!

Disclaimer: Any and all Crash Bandicoot things are copyrighted by there respective owners, although it was thought up by Naughty Dogs, who I would have liked to see continue the series for infinity and beyond, that or Traveler's Tale take it, or Vicarious Visions. This whole "abandon everything that makes Crash Bandicoot" is upsetting me…Although I really liked Radical Entertainment's Tag Team Racing, I know they have it in them. I get on my knees and pray!

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Flames, Flames, and More Flames

As soon as she was kicked into the room, she scuttled as fast as she could to the nearest safe spot. Between the flashes of hot metal, searing flames, monstrous screams, and flying bullets, the girl who didn't own Myspace or hardly knew that there was a world outside a flat map and a global picture, hid under something with a low belly. It had some sort of rutters, no skis- they were like skis…She didn't know what it was, but it was keeping her safe.

She peaked out to see what was going on.

The flames whisked and whacked in her way, like someone was moving their hand in front of her face. She could see her Mother, between these whisking and whacking flames- more bullets, and sounds of screaming. In that briefest moment when she saw her Mother a thrill ran through her- her heart jumped, her eyes widened. It was like receiving an electric shock. Which was something she was accustomed to at this point in her short life

Her Mother was a sight to behold, brandishing her shiny gun, the fire flames reflecting off that majestic weapon on killing and death as she shot and shot and shot at those people that came at her, with their hideous moans…kind of like the sound Mother made from time to time. They just wouldn't stop coming, until they got their head blown off that is.

There were three of them- they came at her faster then she had anticipated. But without missing a beat, she pistol whipped the…person who had reached out towards her, too close. The other ones were quickly quieted, shot down by a gally of bullets.

There were more, but Ticks ran, through the flames like a deer through the woods. With ease. Her mother disappeared into the low-bellied ski thing that was serving as her shelter. Without receiving instruction, the child scrambled out from under it, looking up and in what Doctor Ticks was now in.

It was a sort of…cockpit like thing, yes, that was the right word for it. There were two seats, black in colour-the whole inside was in fact, and flashing lights under two windows that were like square connecting eyes. She climbed up inside, wondering what this thing was.

Doctor Ticks turned on the ignition, the shiny silver keys already inside. With a sound like none other the child had ever heard, this thing lifted up like an apple bobbing in the water. The thing reev-reev-reeev-ed up above the flames, and the people screaming down below as they caught fire.

"Idiots," Ticks muttered, the child tore itself from the view down below to listen to its Mother with an abate gaze, "I said not to open the vents, and what to they do- they open the vents."

All the while, she was pulling down a bunch of tubes- clear, and a mask. She attached the mask to her face, skillfully with one hand. She grabbed the wheel, and moved a stick, thrusting the thing they were in higher in the air. Large metal jaws built at the top of the hollowed out cavern opened up, and let them out.

The flames tried to escape with them, and the screams did too, but the metal jaw shut again, not giving them the chance.

Soon, the large loud machine they were in propelled them higher in the sky. The sound was deafening, causing the child pain- but what was going on down below made up for the pain in tenfold.

The height! The sound! The woosh feeling in her belly. They were…flying! Flying! That's what they were doing, and below them, what was that? A body mass of land, shades of green hidden by the darkness, and as they went higher up, she saw more. And more. There were hills, taller points, and a hole with an outer-crust that was seething a whitish smoke. Surrounding the greenish stuff, was a paler, flatter thing…but soon they were too high up to see details.

The machine they were in passed through a cloud. Ticks lowered the shifting gear.

The child looked around, eyes wide with amazement. Her lips moved against themselves, unsure if she should speak, or if her Master would even hear her. The creature gave it a shot, anyway.

"Master!" It said, as loud as it thought it possibly could, voice dwarfed by the sounds of this machine, "What was that as to which we just as in currently, being now, passed as in by- the preposition meaning near?"

She was sure that there was an easier way to have said that, but she didn't want to be misunderstood. But the creature would have had a better time speaking to a brick wall, then trying and getting a reply out of Doctor Ticks.

They flew together, in silence. The creature looked down once more, seeing the black mirror like substance, and knew right away it was water. Why was that? The child pondered this mystery, as strange urges came to be. There was a mighty urge to just jump from this machine, into the dark waters below, and spread…what? Wings, yes.

But the creature, as it flexed its shoulder blades, realizing that it had no such thing. It let out a mournful noise, as the machine dipped down from the clouds. They were coming to a new thing.

Ticks took off her air mask.

"That was Wumpa Island," She said, finally, though these words meant nothing to the child. Wumpa was a sub-class of several species, a fruit, and a noun. And, well, an island was an island- a body of land mass surrounded by water, "Too far away to see, but you won't need to see it."

Her voice lacked emotions of any sort. They were just words.

"What you need to see," Ticks turned sharply, causing the creature to almost fall out of the cockpit. It grabbed on to the strap like things, and the firmly cushioned seat, "Is this."

And she did.

The island they were above now wasn't as green as the other one, or as smeary, but that's because they weren't moving very fact. A delicious foul smell rose up for this place, a place with little growth, barren land, squat buildings and one mighty jagged one that rose up on an equally mighty hill.

"Cortex Island," Her Creator announced, keeping their flying-machine steady, "The smallest of the Wumpa Islands, much like the owner himself. Polluted. All the rare flora and fauna native there now extinct…or mutated. This is where you will have your first mission."

"Mission, Mot-" The creature caught herself, looking back, "Master?"

"Yes," Ticks replied, "Your Mission is to destroy the owner of this island. Dispose of him by any means necessary, and…"

The child waited with abated breath for her mother to continue speaking. Waiting, with adoring eyes as her mother gave a moan, and said…

"If you don't succeed, don't come back-" And with that, Doctor Jeanette Ticks kicked her newest creation out of the helicopter, and sent it flying down to Castle Cortex.

Ticks swerved away, and took back up into the clouds as her creation went screaming down.