Hello readers! Remember when I said that Crash and company would be heading to the Maredudd Rainforest? I kinda pushed that aside until the next chapter (you'll see why in this chapter). Instead, we will be focusing on three of Cortex's minions. Enjoy!

Dear Diary,

Effam has been acting quite strange lately. Granted, she acts strange most of the time, but these days she seems stranger than ever.

I first started to notice Effam's increasingly strange behavior when Cynzia fell in love with that bandicoot boy. That lousy scarecrow's been spying on Cynzia ever since, and it really has me concerned.

I wish to tell Chantex, but he never really believes anything we say, unless he sees it himself. Now Effam is spying on Mildred, for reasons unknown. The more she spies on our classmates, the more worrisome I get...

Sincerely,

Grutika Johal

Chapter 21: Mutant Mission

It was a bright, sunny morning in Excalibur. Dingodile and N. Gin rested in the kitchen of Grantor's house.

"Hey, N. Gin, wanna hear a joke?" Dingodile asked.

"Lay it on me!" responded.

"What did the five fingers say to the face?"

"Huh, what?"

"SLAP!"

Dingodile slapped N. Gin silly, as the cyborg's head collided against the kitchen counter. N. Gin looked at the fellow minion, looking rather angry.

"What the hey man?!" He snapped.

"That was, cold-blooded!" Dingodile sang. "Bang bang! I won! I won!"

Dingodile walked around the living room with his arms in the air, like he won a game or something. Grantor and Yaya stood near the stairwell as they watched Dingodile being "great".

"Do the mutants always act like this when the others are away?" Yaya asked Grantor.

"You have no idea..." sighed the elderly badger.

Flashback:

The other day, the minions had ordered pizza. Since they were too lazy to get the pizza themselves, they decided to get a delivery boy to deliver the pizza for them. Little did the delivery boy know that he was in for a surprise...

"Pizza's here!" the delivery boy entered through the front door after waiting outside impatiently.

Out of nowhere, Tiny appeared and dunked on the delivery boy. The delivery boy fell to the floor as the minions came out of their hiding spots and cheered for Tiny.

The day before that, Pinstripe participated in the milk chugging challenge as the minions cheered him on.

"Chug, chug, chug, chug..." the minions chanted.

Immediately after chugging the gallon of milk, Pinstripe threw up all over the floor. The minions cheered on like the bunch of morons they are.

End of Flashback

Later that morning, everyone gathered around the kitchen including Chick, Stew, and the cameraman, who stayed behind at the house since Chapter 16.

"Should we invite the Brawl Masters competitors over for breakfast?" Crash asked Grantor.

"I'm pretty sure they're having a fine breakfast themselves at their little residence," replied Grantor. Grantor had rented the former competitors a luxurious house in Excalibur. "Now who's up for some film watching?"

"You rented a movie?" asked Crunch.

"We're not watching a movie, we're watching a video pertaining to the chosen ones. I'll be back with the projector."

Grantor walked out of the kitchen and came back with a screen and a projector. He then turned on the projector, and a video appeared on the screen:

(Note: Outsider dialogue will be italicized.)

The three chosen ones - Tripp, Lilac, and Detlef - arrived in what appeared to be a massive woods of sorts.

"Where the heck are they?" asked Crunch.

"The chosen ones just landed in Farchester Woods," explained Grantor. "This is where Yerofeyev wanted them to start their little quest."

Tripp looked around inspected the surroundings.

"You two go along now," he ordered to Lilac and Detlef. "I'll go my own separate way and see what I can find."

Lilac and Detlef both nodded as they went off together. Tripp walked forward until he was stopped by a black and purple dragon.

"I seriously need your help!" the dragon begged to Tripp.

"That dragon dude looks quite familiar..." Crash examined. "...Could it be?"

"Why yes it is!" exclaimed Grantor. "It's Valestrom, thirty years younger!"

"What do you need help with?" Tripp asked Valestrom.

"Some guy is threatening to destroy my home and take all my possessions if I don't help him fulfill a task of his," explained Valestrom. "I'm supposed to find someone of special interest. I must complete this task. I don't want to lose everything that I own!"

"Fine, fine, I'll help you. But only this once, okay?"

"Just as long as you get the job done."

Static appeared, and the video skipped to a scene where Tripp is inside a massive house. He is standing outside a room, where a girl with dirty blonde hair was tucked in her bed, reading a book. Valestrom was with Tripp.

"Is that the girl you're looking for?" Tripp asked Valestrom.

"She's the one," nodded Valestrom. "Now go get her!"

So Tripp tiptoed inside the room. Once inside, he hid behind a chair, though making some noise in the process, startling the girl.

"Anyone here?" she looked around and observed her surroundings, only to find nothing. She shrugged and continued reading.

That's when Tripp made his move. He ran from the chair to the bed, pulled the covers off, grabbed the girl, and left the room.

"Now THIS I have not seen before!" Grantor sounded shocked as ever.

"Put me down this instant!" demanded the girl. Tripp covered her mouth with his hand as he left the room.

"I got the girl," Tripp told Valestrom, who was waiting outside the room.

"Great! Now meet me at my den in the woods," said Valestrom. "I'll tell you what to do from there."

"Why do I feel like that Valestrom is having evil intentions?" asked Cortex.

"He always has evil intentions, you nitwit," replied Tropy.

"Yeah Uncle Cortex, get with the program," added Nina.

The video skipped to a scene where Detlef and Lilac were standing outside a dragon den.

"Wonder who lives here," said Lilac as she and Detlef entered the den. Inside they found a bunch of doodads - tools, radios, electronics, and all that good stuff.

But what truly caught the attention of the two heroes was a man with his mouth and hands duck-taped. The duo ran to the man and took the duck tape off of him.

"Who did this to you?!" asked Detlef.

"It's the dragon that lives here!" replied the man. "When I overheard him talking to some man, the dragon caught me and took me here."

"What were you doing at the time?" asked Lilac.

"Nothing in particular. I'm a tax collector; I was trying to pass through these woods to get to the nearest town."

Suddenly the three heard a loud noise from the depths of the den. They went to go investigate, coming across Tripp.

"Tripp, what are you doing here?" questioned Detlef.

"Taking care of business, as usual," Tripp replied, cracking his knuckles. "Did you guys find anything?"

"Not really, though we encountered this tax collector man," explained Lilac.

"Hmmm...interesting. Shall we depart to our next destination?"

Grantor fast forwarded to the heroes leaving Farchester Woods via jet plane. As static slowly filled the screen, those watching saw a large figure smiling evilly for some apparent reason.

The static finally enveloped the screen, indicating the end of the video.

"So are will still gonna watch a movie or what?" asked Crunch.

"We're not watching a movie right now, it's too early in the day for such thing," replied Grantor.

A news report come on. Grantor rushed to the TV to watch.

"High acid levels have infiltrated the Maredudd Rainforest," said the anchor. "We advise anyone living within proximity of the rainforest not to enter."

Also watching this news report on his television was Chantex.

"Just as I've figured," Chantex stroked his chin. "Dave, come here!"

The squirrel pupil, who was in the room at that time, rushed up to his instructor.

"Tell the students that the mission has been postponed until tomorrow, at least."

"Yes sir," Dave nodded as he scurried out of the room.

We now take you to Brio's Deli, where business was booming as usual. Only problem was, Brio was running low on ingredients. Therefore he needed two of Cortex's minions - the Komodo Bros - to fetch him some items.

"N. Gin will also be accompanying you," explained Brio. "He'll be driving you to the supermarket."

"Why not have me drive?" Joe asked. "At least I drove a vehicle before, in modern times, no less!"

"No need to worry, N. Gin has a driver's permit."

"Fine then, we'll take your word for it," said Moe. "But if N. Gin gets in a car crash, and we all end up in a hospital, don't come crying to us when you need some workers."

And with that, the Komodo Bros left Brio's office and headed outside, where Tag was working on N. Gin's car...which was a banged up truck that was falling apart.

"Of all the cars he could chose from..." sighed Moe.

"Is the vehicle ready?" asked N. Gin. Tag gave a resounding thumbs up once he got the engine working. Joe walked over to the front car window on the driver's side, and saw that the key was in ignition.

"I'm having serious doubts about this," the komodo dragon sounded worried.

"The car's up and running, now let's go!" squealed N. Gin. The cyborg sat in the front seat, while Joe sat in the passenger seat and Moe sat in the back seat. N. Gin rolled the car out of the parking lot, and drove out of the driveway.

As they left, Tag shook his head, feeling some remorse for the Komodo Bros.

During the drive to the supermarket, Joe had one question on his mind.

"Did you bring the grocery list?" he asked N. Gin.

"Grocery list?" N. Gin was confused. "Oh man, I forgot the grocery list!"

"You did?! Why you little..."

"Aren't you sitting on it Dan?" Moe questioned. N. Gin looked down at his seat and there it was.

"Found it!" N. Gin held up the grocery list, with only one hand on the wheel. The car kept swerving off the road, narrowly missing several cars, until N. Gin regained control.

"This is gonna be a long ride," grumbled Moe.

Charles and Trent met in their usual meeting place inside Chantex's school, the detention room. Since their mission was postponed, they were able to hold their meeting. (This is way the Maredudd Rainforest arc has been postponed until the next chapter.)

"Von Clutch and Fake Crash have been serving us well," began Trent. "The two were spying on Raquel, and were able to uncover more information about her and Mindy's intentions."

"What did they find?" asked Charles.

"Their goal is to manipulate Crash into doing their bidding. They want to use Crash in their plot to blow up the island."

"How very reprobate of them."

"But that's not all. Fake Crash told me that Cynzia's in on this plot as well. She could be the student I alluded to earlier."

"Pretty sure she's joining them just to fit in. Did you contact Zeferino about this?"

"I did a while ago. Since Von Clutch and Fake Crash are heavily involved in this scheme, he's gonna install brain chips in their heads so he can control them should they regain their memory. Those two were also scheduled to partake in our mission, but since the mission has been postponed, Zeferino will have more time on his hands to install those chips."

"How long will these brain chips be effective?"

"Beats me..."

After being pulled over a couple of times, N. Gin finally reached the borough of Elmwood, home to the city's largest supermarket. He parked the truck in front of a Fazoli's restaurant.

"We're here!" The cyborg chirped.

"N. Gin this is a restaurant, not a supermarket," explained Joe.

"Well how am I supposed to know what a supermarket looks like? Sheesh!"

N. Gin backed out of the parking lot in search for the supermarket. Moe had brought a GPS to use to find said supermarket, but N. Gin completely ignored it and sought to find the destination on his own. He would eventually find the supermarket, but not without causing trouble - when he parked, he accidentally crashed into another vehicle.

"Watch it, bub!" The driver of the vehicle yelled at N. Gin.

"Let's get out before we get in trouble," N. Gin said quickly as he and the Komodo Bros exited the truck, which was already falling apart after the slight accident.

The three entered the supermarket, and boy it was packed.

"Oops, forget the grocery list!" N. Gin exclaimed as he went back outside. The Komodo Bros face-palmed until the cyborg came back, list in hand. "Alright, now we are ready!"

The first section the minions went to was the dairy section, to get some milk and eggs.

"Augh, this section stinks!" Moe held his nose.

"It's not supposed to stink here..." said Joe.

"That must have been me," giggled N. Gin. Moe and Joe backed away as much as possible.

After retrieving the milk, butter, and eggs, it was on to the produce section. N. Gin was eating some of the vegetables as he browsed through the section.

"You eat it, you buy it!" One of the store employees shouted.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I heard it the first time," N. Gin retorted after being reminded on a frequent basis.

"N. Gin, the veggies you're eating are all on the list," reminded Joe.

"Which is why I'm tasting them just make sure they're of good quality."

Joe gave the cyborg a death glare.

The next section was the meat section. N. Gin was being skeptical for some reason.

"Eh, we don't need meat," he said. "Meat is bad, nutritionally speaking."

"Not all meat is bad!" Moe refuted.

"Who told you that lie?"

Moe and N. Gin started bickering with one another. A customer next to the minions looked on and shook his head.

"Are they always like this?" He asked Joe.

"You have no idea," sighed Joe.

Next up was the deli section...which was next to the dairy section.

"Aren't we going all over the place?" Joe questioned.

"No, I got this all under control," advised N. Gin.

N. Gin bumped into some thuggish-looking man; the man turned around and stared down the cyborg.

"You want beef, son?" He threatened.

"Uh, sure, I'll take some," replied N. Gin. The Komodo Bros face-palmed as the man and N. Gin stared each other down.

"Store fight!" A random dude shouted out loud. People gathered around N. Gin and the man as they readied themselves for a fight.

Immediately following the fight, police officers stopped by the supermarket to investigate. A local news station was at the scene as well. The thuggish-looking man whom N. Gin fought with made a getaway, driving out in his car as fast as possible.

"We were unable to capture the one of the two suspects involved in the fight here in this supermarket," the reporter said into the camera. "However, we did get the other suspect, who is battered and bruised." The reporter held his microphone to the embattled N. Gin. "Do you know where the man you fought could have gone to?"

"Nope, though I did get his license tag!" N. Gin held up the license tag of the man's car. Everyone on the scene shook their heads at the cyborg.

Back at Chantex's school, Cynzia and Raquel gathered in the multipurpose room.

"Since we both have a mission in the Maredudd Rainforest, and it will be most likely Crash and company will be there, it'll be a chance for us to see what the bandicoot is truly made of," discussed Raquel. "...Are you even listening to me?"

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Cynzia stopped blushing, daydreaming about Crash. Raquel groaned and repeated her explanation.

"While me and the others are in the rainforest, I want you to tag along and take some video evidence of Crash and his accomplices," Raquel handed Cynzia a digital camera. "Make sure you get some evidence of Team Cortex if you can!"

"Seems like an easy task...I'll do it."

"I'll keep Mindy updated during our mission tomorrow. She is as vital as you are to this plan of ours. See you on the flip side!"

And with that, Raquel left the room, leaving Cynzia by her self. The red-haired student pulled out her cell phone, scrolled through the contacts, and once she found the contact she was looking for, texted the following message:

They're still going forth with their plan..

We now take you back to N. Gin and the Komodo Bros, who stopped by the gas station so N. Gin could fill up his beat-up truck with some good ol' gas.

"Still can't believe it took N. Gin a good five minutes to notice the gas tank was low," said Moe.

"Leave him alone, at least we made it here before we ran out of gas," said Joe.

While the Komodo Bros stood next to the truck, N. Gin went inside the convenience store to pay for the gas. A burglar barged in.

"Put your hands up!" the burglar held out his gun at the innocent people. Everybody did put their hands up, save for N. Gin, who was dancing as if he was at a party. "This is a stick-up man!"

"Well you should have been more specific!" N. Gin stopped dancing and put his hands in the air.

"Nobody move." The burglar inched towards the cash register, gun in hand. N. Gin started sweating.

"Can I put my arms down? They're getting tired," complained the cyborg.

Once he was done taking money from the cash register, the burglar ran off. The stick-up was over.

"About time," sighed N. Gin as everything in the store went back to normal. After paying for the gas, N. Gin headed back outside and filled up his truck with some gas.

"Did you guys see a burglar?" He asked the Komodo Bros.

"We weren't really paying attention," replied Joe.

Once the tank was full, N. Gin and the Komodo Bros drove back to Brio's Deli.

Somewhere in Courbet, the burglar who robbed the convenience store hid behind a large tree. The hooded figure from Chapter 19 was there as well.

"Here's the cash you wanted," the burglar handed the hooded person the wads of cash. The figure nodded and ran away.

After giving the groceries to Brio, who really needed them for himself rather than for his restaurant, N. Gin and the Komodo Bros headed back to Grantor's house, where Crash and company were playing charades to pass the time. It was Chick's turn; the chicken was standing on his head. The three minions saw this once they had entered.

"Is it a urinal?" guessed Cortex.

"No, it's a pillar!" Chick got up from the ground. "It was so obvious!"

Grantor entered the living room with a phone.

"Someone wants to speak to you," the badger gave Crash the phone.

"Hello?" Crash said into the phone.

"Greetings, old sport!" The man greeted over the phone. It was Huey Drexler. "Congrats on your big win yesterday, even though it was slightly tainted."

"Thanks man. So what's up?"

Crash started to talk to Drexler for at least twenty five minutes or so. Unbeknownst to the bandicoot, Roo sneaked into Crash's room and pulled out the bandicoot's backpack as he shuffled through the four masks.

"I wonder..." Roo thought to himself.

End of Chapter 21