A/N: OK, sorry I took so long. I had managed to do this which would be the first 'Ansem' battle. Then I had to think of the 2 bosses that will replace the teo heartless battles for the One Piece and the Dragon Ball Z worlds. Anyway, please enjoy, don't flame and review.
Chapter 21: A shocking surprise:
"Crash, we have to find to find Crunch AND YOU HAVE TO DO IS TO READ BOWSER'S REPORT!" Shadow yells as Crash and Knuckles was sitting on the ledge, reading Bowser's report.
"Hold on, I'm almost finished" Crash said and he looked at the report again "let's see… yeah… blah, blah, blah. Hmm… Ooh… now that is so confusing…"
"Lead me see…" Knuckles said as Crash gave him the report and Knuckles read it too "Yeah… I don't understand what it said either."
"Now can we get on with this?" Cloud asked "we wasted a lot of time in here already".
"Sorry about that, Cloud" Crash said as he got up. "OK, let's go."
"I JUST SAID THAT AN HOUR AGO!" Shadow yells.
"To be on the safe side" Crash whispered to Shadow "I don't ever want to be on Cloud's bad side. You know how angry he gets."
"Oh, right" Shadow said.
They soon released that there was a doorway in the wall of the hallway.
"I guess that means where Crunch is" Knuckles said.
As soon as they walked out of the door, they confronted by more heartless. Crash decided to summon Jin and when he did that, Shadow and Knuckles disappeared and Jin appeared.
"Jin, these the heartless, the one who took away your world" Crash said "Ready to get revenge on them?"
Jin cracked his fists "It's only a few, but sure, why not?"
Jin then punched and kicked the heartless destroying each one completely without having the heartless lay a scratch on him.
"Wow. He's good" Cloud said.
"See ya later, kid" Jin said as he disappeared back into his stone and Shadow and Knuckles appeared.
They entered into the same room that Sephiroth had been a while ago. They were shocked to see the girls in the tubes. Cloud saw a familiar brown haired girl with a white tank top and black shorts and ran to her.
"TIFA!" Cloud yells as he bangs on the tube, trying to wake her up "TIFA! WAKE UP! IT'S ME, CLOUD!"
Crash, Shadow and Knuckles were shocked at the other girls in there.
"Look! It's the ones who were kidnapped from their worlds" Knuckles said.
"Yeah, there's Renamon, Ember, Chi-Chi…" Shadow said.
"And 2 women we don't know" Crash said.
Then Crash's heart starts telling him to go up the stairs to where the heart shaped panel is. So he ran up with Shadow and Knuckles following him. Cloud was too busy with Tifa to even notice.
As Crash and Shadow got to the top, Knuckles was send back by some force and rolled down the stairs.
"Knuckles!" Shadow gasped as he saw Knuckles fell into unconscious.
Crash was watching in horror as he saw a familiar girl laying in front of them.
"COCO!" Crash yells and ran over to her and lifted her head into his arms. Crash won't believe that Coco is gone. "Coco! Wake up! It's me, Crash! You're brother! Coco!" But he couldn't hold back his tears anymore as some fell. "Coco, I am so sorry. I promised that I would protect you but I failed. I couldn't save you. I am so sorry, Coco. Please… come back to me. Please…" Crash put his head on Coco's forehead and wept. Shadow came over to him and put his hands on his shoulder.
"Hey, come on" Shadow said "Don't cry, Crash."
"I'm afraid grieving over your loss will not bring her back to you." Crash looked up to see Crunch sitting on top of the heart panel "As you can see, she cannot wake up, because the girl has lost her heart."
Crash put Coco down as Shadow turned to Crunch.
"What do you mean b…" Shadow begun before Crash put his hand on his shoulder. Shadow saw the anger in Crash's eyes. Crash looked up angrily at Crunch.
"You…" he hissed "You are not Crunch! He cares for Coco! You're not him at all! What did you do to him?"
"So you figured it out, huh?" Crunch smirked. "It's incredible what one would do anything for something ridiculous as surpassing his own rival. Because he opened his heart to the darkness I was able to take over."
"You're insane!" Shadow said coldly.
"Believe what you want." Crunch shrugged. "But it doesn't matter because the keyhole will be ready to open the door. As you can see, it is still incomplete and shall remain that way as long as the last princess of heart still sleeps." He then jumped off the heart and floated down to the stairs in front of it.
Crash turned to Coco. "The princess? Wait! So the sister I had grown up with is a princess?!"
"Yes" Crunch said as he landed on the ground "That's correct. She is like the piece to a puzzle. Once she is solved, it shall be complete. Once she is awaken then the keyhole will appear." He then licked his lips. "I can already taste it. And please, you in not position to stop me. I hold all the cards now."
"Well, whoever you are! We won't let you get away with this! Let Crunch go!" Crash yells at him "Give him back his heart!"
"True, boy, true" Crunch smirked as he pointed his black keyblade at Crash "but before that, you must give the princess back her heart!"
Crash was confused by what Crunch meant. He first thought it magically appeared somewhere in his pocket. He began searching through every pocket he had and couldn't find a thing. He looked around his body to see if there was anything different. All of a sudden, his chest began glowing and Crash felt a second presents in his chest. It felt so strange that he gasped and leaned over. Shadow ran over to his aid.
"Crash!" Shadow said.
"What's… happening?" Crash gasped.
"Don't you see yet?" Crunch replied as he walks down the steps. "The princess's heart is responding. It have been there all along. Coco's heart rests within you!"
"Coco… Coco's inside me? All these flashbacks, these feelings, that was because of Coco's heart?" Crash asked.
"Correct." Crunch nodded. "Her heart was too afraid to enter the darkness, but it found the safe haven of your heart, Crash."
"How do you know all of this?" asked Shadow.
"I know all there is to know" Crunch said.
"Tell me… who are you?" asked Crash.
"Sounds promising. A last request before your demise shall sound good" Crunch smirked evilly "My name is Bowser, the king of all Koopas and the seeker of darkness!"
Crash couldn't believe what he was hearing. Bowser? The same Bowser who was Mario's arch nemesis? The same Bowser that had turned against his own people and his own world. He don't want to believe it.
"Why?" Shadow snarled "You're people respected you. And this is how you repay them? For stealing their hearts?"
"Fool!" Bowser smirked "I will built a new world, ruled by darkness! The only thing required now…" he looked at Crash as he said "is this bandicoot now."
He walks forward. Shadow won't let him and charged at him ready to attack but Bowser knocked him out of the way like he was nothing and Shadow fell to where Knuckles is out cold. Bowser approached Crash with an evil smile on his face.
"Now, I shall awaken you at last, princess" he said pointing his keyblade at Crash "Complete the keyhole with your power. Open the door! Lead me into everlasting darkness!"
Bowser then held his keyblade up in the air as he was ready to strike Crash down. Crash was still kneeling on the ground. As Bowser brought his keyblade down, Crash hears a voice in his heart.
"Crash!" Coco yells.
Crash looked up and quickly held up his own keyblade blocking Bowser's keyblade.
"What?" Bowser asked as Crash stood up which defending himself with the keyblade.
"Forget it!" Crash snarled as he pushed Bowser's keyblade away "There's no way you're getting Coco's heart! If you want it that bad, you have to take it from me through sheer force!"
"Heh, heh, heh. You surprised me, boy" Bowser said "that was some power you got there. However, you do realise that you're out of your league. I crush you in 2 seconds flat."
"I do think so. I will do this to save Shadow, Knuckles and Coco. I would even save Crunch" Crash said "sure he may have brought misery but deep down I know I can forgive him. But Bowser, I'll never forgive you! This ends now!"
The warriors stood at each other in their fighting stances ready to finish this. Then both Crash and Bowser charged at each other and clashed their blades at each other. They clashed their blades back and forth, showing no sign of weakness. Bowser then leapt back and then blew fire out of his mouth. Crash leapt back dodging the attack and then threw his keyblade at Bowser who ducked and it goes back to him like a boomerang. Bowser then goes up to Crash and tried slashing him but Crash moved out of the way out each slash. Crash then did a roundhouse kick but Bowser dodged it and then tried to kick him but Crash leapt over. Bowser and Crash then stood back glaring at each other.
"You like we're pretty even" Crash said.
"Not quite" Bowser smirked "I was saving this for an occasion but this one is special." He then rose in the air. "Now, feel the power of darkness."
Then goes into an amazing speed and he keeps charging. Crash was hit by those attacks as Bowser kept slashing, the more damage Crash had. Then Bowser appeared behind him for one last slash but then Crash disappeared before he could strike him and appeared behind him and slashed him to the ground.
"Sorry but you're not taking Coco's heart from me that easily" Crash said.
Bowser chuckled and got up "You impressed me, Crash. But you underestimated the power of darkness. I hope you're ready because this attack will finish you off."
"W…What are you're talking about?" Crash asked.
Bowser cackled and then raise his keyblade in the air. And then he disappeared. Crash looked around for him before getting slashed multiple of times. Bowser reappeared and then slashed Crash very hard on the arm causing Crash to fall to the ground motionless. Bowser cackled and then held his keyblade in the air again and a dark energy ball appeared on the end.
"Now, die!" Bowser yells as he tossed the energy to where Crash is. There was a huge explosion and it woke Shadow and Knuckles up.
"CRASH!" Shadow and Knuckles gasped as they ran up the stairs to help.
Bowser watched as the smoke gather up.
"Heh, heh, heh. Fool. He should know not to mess with the power of darkness." But then he stop smirking "Huh? Grr. Why am I not surprised?"
Crash was standing up as the smoke died down. His arm where Bowser slashed him was a bloody mess. Crash smirked.
"Is that all you got?" asked Crash. "But that was a nice one, that really got the blood flowing. Don't you know the good guys always win?"
"You're just coping Mario" Bowser said "this isn't a story. In the real world, darkness always wins."
"Funny. Come with that one up yourself?" Crash asked. He then leapt up in the air and start sword fighting with Bowser once again. But this time before Bowser could attack him, Crash leapt over him and slashed him from behind. Bowser was then slashed by Crash's attacks. Crash then kicked him from behind and Bowser was send flying. Crash then appeared behind him and slashed him to the ground causing a big crash. Bowser got up very angry as Crash landed in front of him.
"DARN IT!" Bowser snarled "Where did he get so much power? I HAD ENOUGH! NOW I WILL KILL YOU NOW!"
Bowser then raise his keyblade for a desperate attack but Crash held his keyblade high and starts spinning it in front of him causing an tornado around it.
"KEYBLADE DEATH TORNADO!" Crash yells and a huge tornado came out of the spinning keyblade and aimed it at Bowser. Bowser got hit and he flew back into the stairs defeated.
Shadow and Knuckles ran up the stairs and joined Crash. They noticed the huge cut on his arm.
"Crash! Are you alright?" asked Shadow.
"I'm fine." Crash said "The arm's gonna get a huge scar after this."
Shadow cast cure on Crash's arm and his cut vanished.
"Guess you're not getting a scar" Knuckles said.
Bowser got up again feeling weak "My skills have failed me, this time. Listen to me well, marsupial. You may have won the fight, but you're far from winning the war. I will return!" And dropping his keyblade he disappeared.
"Crunch!" Crash gasped as he tried to save him but failed.
"Crash! Look!" Shadow said.
"The keyhole. We need to take care of it!" Knuckles said.
Crash reached up to the heart gateway and pointed his keyblade at it. But nothing happened. He put it back. "It's no good. The keyhole is not ready yet."
"So now what do we do?" asked Knuckles.
"The only way for the keyhole to open if we wake up Coco. So if we could free her heart, the keyhole would open" Crash said "But one question remains… how?"
"OK, does anyone knows how to do a heart operation" Shadow asked.
"Well, Tails forced me to play to play Operation" Knuckles said.
"Knuckles, she isn't a board where you move the body parts from" Shadow said.
Crash then saw Bowser's keyblade on the floor in front of them. "Wait a minute. A keyblade that unlocks people's hearts. I wonder…" He closed his eyes and then he opened them again as he understand what he must do. He walks towards the keyblade and picked it up.
"CRASH!" Shadow yells as he knew what he would do, "WAIT A MINUTE! ARE YOU CRAZY?!"
"NO! HOLD ON, CRASH! DON'T GO!" Knuckles yells as he understood as well.
Crash looked at the keyblade before turning to his friends and smiled. "See ya later… I hope…" He then turned the keyblade where the blade points to his chest and he stabbed it into his chest. There was a light and Crash felt woozy as the keyblade got out and was destroyed showing 6 white balls. The balls flew into the air and flew into the chest of the princesses that are in the containers. Suddenly, a white ball appeared in Crash's chest and it flew out. It flew into Coco's chest. Coco finally opened her eyes. Crash saw her open them and smiled as the heart gateway glowed meaning the keyhole is complete. Then Crash begins to fall as Knuckles ran to him trying to grab him.
"CRASH! CRASH!" Knuckles cried.
Coco sat up to see Crash falling. She gasped and stood up "NO! CRASH!" She ran to him but he disappeared before he could grab him in a sparks of light which floated to the ceiling as Coco, Shadow and Knuckles watch on in horror as he leaves.
"CRASH! COME BACK, CRASH!" Shadow yelled.
But he was long gone by then. Then we see Crash falling into darkness. The only words he said was "W…What happening to me? Falling…falling…into darkness" and he disappeared.
As Coco, Shadow and Knuckles watched as Crash leaves, sorrow entered into them.
"Crash… are you really?" asked Coco but then she clutched her heart "No… Crash, I won't believe it. You can't be gone yet. I won't let you go!" She turned to Shadow and Knuckles. "Guys, I believe that Crash may be still alive."
"Are you crazy?" Shadow snapped "we saw him die. He did it so he could save you!"
"Even that is true, I won't stop until I see my brother again!" Coco said.
"You're right" Knuckles said "I won't give up on Crash yet."
"Yeah I guess so… OK, guys. Crash is still alive and we must find him!" Shadow said.
"Unfortunately it will be too late to stop me" said a voice. They all looked around to see who made it and then someone appeared before them. It was a giant turtle creature that had a giant green shell with spikes. Yellow skin on his body, orange hair and orange eyebrows, and link chains around his neck, arms, and legs. He has sharp teeth as well.
"Who are you?" asked Knuckles.
"Does my voice rings a bell to you?" smirked the monster.
"You… I know that voice anywhere… You're Bowser!" Shadow gasped.
"Ding, ding, ding. That's correct. Ten points for the black hedgehog. I am indeed Bowser" Bowser smirked. He turned to Coco "So, I see that you've awaken at last princess. The keyhole is now complete, you have served your propose. Now it's finished. Come with me to the darkness, or I will destroy you!"
"I never go with someone like you!" Coco snarled "You'll pay for all those lives you killed, including my brother!"
"Very well then. I shall kill you instead" Bowser smirked as he walked towards them.
Shadow and Knuckles stood in front of Coco in a protective stand "Don't make another move!"
"Do you think we could stop him all by ourselves" Knuckles asked him.
"I don't know" Shadow said "He's one giant of a reptile to beat."
Bowser then stopped suddenly as he felt that something was wrong within him.
"What's going on now?" asked Knuckles.
"Impossible" Bowser groaned. All of a sudden, a spirit of Crunch was holding in front of him stopping him.
"No! You won't use me for this anymore!" Crunch snarled.
"Crunch! You too…" Coco gasped.
"Coco! If you see Crash again, tell him that I am really sorry for what I had done. I shouldn't have listen to Sephiroth and this bozo." Crunch said "But for now, you must run now! The Heartless are coming and growing stronger! Run now!"
All of the sudden, lots of heartless appeared around them. Coco sighed and nodded.
"Let's go!" She told Shadow and Knuckles and they made a run for it.
"What about the keyhole?" asked Knuckles.
"Let's just get out of here!" Shadow said.
"Fools!" Bowser roared to the heartless "Get them!"
The trio made a run to the hallway where Crash and his friends confronted Crunch. Coco stopped by the doorway.
"Coco! We have to move!" Knuckles called.
"What about the other princesses? I can't leave them" Coco called.
"We don't have time to worry about that! Cloud will help them out. We just have to go" Shadow called. Coco nodded and ran down to join them,
"A heartless is chasing us" Knuckles said pointing to a shadow heartless by the door which they just came out.
"I'll take care of him" Shadow said. The heartless jumped at Shadow. Shadow hit him on the head but the heartless didn't effect him.
"Hey, you annoying little heartless. Get lost will ya?"
The heartless looked at Coco.
"Crash? Is that you?" Coco asked. Shadow and Knuckles looked at it. The heartless nodded. "Crash! It is you. You didn't fight back when Shadow tried to kill you."
"Oh… err… sorry Crash… my bad" Shadow said to the heartless.
"Speaking of heartless… we got a problem" Knuckles said because more heartless appeared. Shadow and Knuckles ran off to fight them while Coco stay to protect the heartless.
"Crash, you protected me a lot of times. Now, it's my turn to protect you" Coco said. The heartless was slowly advancing towards them. Then when they leapt, Coco wrapped her arms around the heartless screaming "Crash!" and the heartless covered them.
Shadow and Knuckles turned around to see the heartless piling up on where Coco was.
"Coco!" Knuckles gasped.
Then a burst of light came and it pushed the heartless off them. Coco is found wrapped into someone's arms. Coco had her eyes closed but she opened them when a voice whispered into her ear. "Coco… thank you…"
Coco looked up to see the smiling face of her brother and she gasped happily and hugged him back. "Crash! You're back!"
"Crash!" Shadow and Knuckles cheered seeing their friend back. Crash smiled as he let go off Coco and waved.
"Hey, guys. Long time no see" he smirked.
Then more heartless appeared. Crash got his keyblade out and with Shadow and Knuckles protected Coco if one of them dare to attack. Then a familiar spiky blonde hair swordsmen came in and slashed one heartless away with his sword.
"Go now!" Cloud shouted.
"Come with us" Crash said.
"How many times must I tell you?" Cloud said "I am not leaving here without Tifa! Now go! The heartless are coming!"
"OK. Be careful, OK" Crash said. "Let's get out of here guys!"
"Coco, we got a ship outside the castle. We use it to get out of here" Knuckles said.
"But where would we go?" asked Coco.
"To Terserve Town" Crash said "Don't worry. I know a guy who can look after you."
They all made a dash for it and they took off in their ship away from Nintendo Bastion back to Terserve Town. They had to run all the way to Mario's house. Once they all got in, Crash slammed the door behind and they all collapsed, causing Mario, Peach, Zelda and Krystal to loom at them in an odd way.
"What's the matter with you th…four…" Peach asked.
"I don't understand. There's more heartless out there now" Knuckles said.
"More? Tell me what-a happened?" asked Mario.
The heroes begins to tell them what happened at Nintendo Bastion, their conflict with Sephiroth, their 'meeting' with Bowser and the keyhole left unsealed.
"And that's what happened" Crash said.
"And we just came back to tell you that we went to Nintendo Bastion to settle things with Sephiroth" Knuckles said "and there we meet Cloud and Crunch and Crunch said…"
"YOU'RE TELLING THE STORY ALL OVER AGAIN!" Crash, Shadow and Coco yelled.
"Oh… sorry…" Knuckles said.
"I see… so the darkness is pulling out of that keyhole" Mario said.
"No wonder there were more and more heartless everywhere" Krystal said.
"Yeah" Zelda said as she looked out of the window "The only way to stop them is…"
"Seal the keyhole right?" Crash asked holding up the keyblade.
"Maybe… but no one knows what would happen after it had been sealed" Mario said.
"Well, we can't just sit here, we gotta do something!" Crash said "I've got a friend back there that still need rescuing."
"That's-a right. You have one more friend to worry about" Mario said "And hard to believe that Bowser is still up to no good. But I can think why. You see… I had defeated Bowser a long time ago. Since the heartless was found, he started researching. Now, I think he want to use the heartless for his own purpose. But I am glad he's not after Peach anymore. I wouldn't know what would happen to her if it did."
"That's very nice, Mario" Peach said, then she noticed the sadness in Zelda's and Krystal's eyes and tried to confront them "Hey, come on you two. I'm sure Link and Fox would think the same for you."
"And I will tell them that, I promise you" Crash reassure them.
"Thank you, Crash. We feel braver now" Zelda smiled.
"Yeah. We know Fox and Link would come back soon" Krystal smiled.
"And what of the princesses?" asked Crash.
"Well, Crunch's keyblade must be born by the captive princesses' hearts. Just like that keyhole you saw" Mario said as he looked at Coco "Of course, without Coco's heart, it would remain incomplete. But don't worry, now the keyblade was destroyed, the princesses' hearts should have been freed. Please, don't worry, Crash" he said while putting his hand on Crash's shoulder "If anyone who could save your friend and save us all, you can."
Crash nodded and he decided that Coco should stay here from the heartless. Now he has 3 new missions: Go back and seal the keyhole to Nintendo Bastion, defeat Bowser and rescue Crunch and the king.
To be continued…
A/N: So, now that Bowser is on the loose, it's up to Crash to stop him. (Usually that's Mario's job) Anyway, I will update soon. So see ya.