Hello readers! So remember when I said I was gonna do a guide for this story?
"Slack author," Penta shook his head.
Well, if you have visited my profile page in recent weeks, you may have seen an incomplete guide!
"Tsk, tsk, tsk..."
Anyways, here is Chapter 36!
Dear Diary,
I have a secret that nobody knows but me.
It's a secret that has much to do with one of the chosen ones - Detlef.
It's also a secret that has much to do with the "fail safe" chosen one - whomever Cortex mutates with his Evolvo Ray.
Most importantly, it's a secret that has much to do with the Excalibur sword - the sword that rules all.
The Excalibur sword is a one-way ticket, a key, to unlocking the fullness of the Dark Fate. Whoever wields that sword and unlocks the prophecy will get one wish, and one wish only.
But in order to grant that wish, there is only one thing required to do so...
...me.
Chapter 36: Grantor's Lament
Team Cortex, along with Zoey and her children, and Tiny, stared at Daniil Yerofeyev, who had a particular sword in his hand. Dave stood with an incapacitated Isabel in his furry arms...er, paws...while every member of Team Crash sans their leader Crash was on the floor unconscious.
"Finally pleased to see you in person, Cortex and friends," the Russian smiled evilly.
"Who are you, and how do you know my name?" asked Cortex. The rest of Team Cortex shook their heads, since Cortex apparently doesn't remember seeing Yerofeyev in any of Grantor's old tapes.
"What will we do Cortex?" Zoey asked the N head.
"I have no clue, my dear, but we'll try to figure things out..."
"Do you find it creepy that he just called mom 'dear'?" Elijah asked his sister, Amber.
"Eh, he saved us, so we'll let it slide," replied Amber. "...For now."
"With the Excalibur sword in hand..." Yerofeyev held up the sword for everyone to see. "...I can finally unlock The Dark Fate..." -dramatic music- "...and fulfill my fate!"
"...Which is world domination, we assume?" said Tropy.
"That is actually number two on my priority list. Isn't that right, Dave?"
"Mr. Yerofeyev has something in mind other than world domination," explained Dave. "In fact, he - or we, rather - are not focused on dominating this world - we're also focused on dominating all the other worlds, and destroy the universe so we could create an entirely new and better one!"
"How come all the other villains come up with better evil ideas..." pouted Cortex.
"So what is your primary goal?" asked Nina.
"It's a secret," snarled Yerofeyev.
"Tiny wants to know!" the mutant tiger lunged at the Russian, and the two went to battle with each other. During this time, Coco, Crunch, Fake Crash, and Yaya, woke up from their unconsciousness one by one. Team Cortex tended to their needs.
"What happened here?" asked Pasadena.
"The Russian guy from those videotapes came here looking for Isabel, and he kinda went ham, beating up the medical staff and whatnot until Dave found Isabel," explained Fake Crash as he rubbed his head. "Zoey managed to remain unscathed."
"Dave figured that if Crash was injured, then we wouldn't be able to make it to the Eubeleus Badlands," added Coco. "Since he found Cortex too incompetent to lead a team of any sort (no offense Cortex), he figured it would take you all a long time to find the mask, giving him time to find Isabel."
"Speaking of whom, where's Crash?" asked Von Clutch.
"He's still in his room," replied Crunch.
"Crash should be at 100% by now," added Yaya. "Let's go!"
So our heroes, as well and Zoey, Elijah, and Amber, headed over to Crash's room, which was blockaded by many heavy objects. The reporting trio, who were bruised and battered, tried their hardest to move said objects.
"Thank goodness you're here!" Chick exclaimed.
"Come help us!" begged Stew.
The others tried to help the reporting trio move the objects, but to no avail.
"Look out!" alerted Uka as Yerofeyev launched Tiny at the blockage, sending him through the room and waking up a sleeping Crash.
"Huh?" the bandicoot woke up as Aku appeared next to him. He saw Tiny lying on the ground, and wondered what the heck was going on.
"Master Crash!" Aku screamed in Crash's face. "A new evil threat is afoot!"
"For real?" the now healthy Crash got off from the hospital bed and tore off his hospital gown. "Where is he?"
"Right here!" Yerofeyev entered the room, accompanied by Dave.
"Yo, Yerofeyev, what up! Finally got a chance to see you in person! So, who's the new evil threat?"
"You fool, I'm the evil threat! I'm the true big bad, not Valestrom!"
"Nah that can't be right..."
"It's true. Right Dave?"
"Yes sir," nodded Dave. "Valestrom was assigned to do Yerofeyev's dirty work, but failed miserably in his duty. Yerofeyev here joined the dark side so he could not only destroy the universe and create a new one, but to..."
"Why do you have Isabel in your possession?" asked Aku.
"That's none of your concern! Shall we leave now...my true master?"
The latter part of Dave's question caught our heroes off-guard.
"Well, we already found Isabel...I guess we can leave," replied Yerofeyev. "But before we do..." He then turned to Crash. "Any information you received regarding the Mavericks was completely made up. I want that to sink in."
And with that, Yerofeyev and Dave departed through the use of smokescreen. Once the smoke cleared, the two were nowhere to be found.
"O...kay," was all Crash could say. Cortex approached the bandicoot with the mask.
"Good news; we found the mask!" he displayed the mask to Crash.
"Isn't she that blonde girl we saw in one of Grantor's old tapes?"
"Here, take it, ask her." Cortex handed Crash the mask, which awoke in the bandicoot's hands.
"Is this the basement?" she observed her surroundings.
"Basement?" Aku raised an eyebrow. "What basement?"
"Last thing I remember, I was in the basement of some castle, gathered with the other Mavericks. Other than us, there was a dragon and some tall guy..."
Intrigued, Crash decided to dig a little deeper.
"Where you kidnapped by some dark-skinned dude?" the bandicoot asked.
"Yeah, he kidnapped me in the middle of the night while I was reading, and then he took me to some dragon den, where the dragon was present, and the two stuffed me in some sack. I believe they carried me off somewhere."
"She's definitely that girl we saw in those videotapes," Crash thought to himself.
"By the why, what's your name?"
"My name? I'm Crash Bandicoot. Yours?"
"Gretchen. So where are we?"
"Could someone explain what's going on?" Amber asked the others as Crash conversed with Gretchen.
"The bandicoot is our brother," Fake Crash explained, albeit poorly. Coco sighed.
"Crash is hero of a certain prophecy, and the fate of the world - rather, the universe - is in his hands," explained Coco. "He has to gather eight masks in order to stop the prophecy from falling into the Russian guy's hands."
"What she explained was the simpler stuff," added Chick. "It goes waaaaay deep when you get into necessary details."
"How did they Russian guy find a sword like that?" asked Elijah.
"That's what we're gonna figure out," replied Uka.
"Y'all ready to go back to Excalibur?" Crash asked the others once he finished his conversation with Gretchen.
"Wanna come with us?" Cortex asked Zoey and her children. "I'll rent you a house! Also, the hospital there is much better!"
"I can't see why not," shrugged Zoey.
"Alright then!" Crash readied himself. "Excalibur, here we come!"
Our heroes, the reporting trio, Zoey and her children arrived in Excalibur that night, close to midnight. Everyone was tired and exhausted by the time they reached Grantor's mansion. Crash knocked on the door; Pinstripe answered it.
"Wow, y'all look beat," Pinstripe observed the crowd. His eyes maneuvered over to Zoey, as he made a purring noise. "Who's the smoking hot lady?"
"She is my love interest!" defended Cortex. "Don't call her stuff like that in front of her children!"
"It's fine, Cortex, he certainly meant no harm," assured Zoey.
"YOU got a girl?" Pinstripe was astonished. "Well, I already had a girlfriend, so it's all good."
"Tiny got beat up by Russian guy in red suit who was evil," said Tiny for no apparent reason.
"Uh huh...Hold up, you said something about a Russian guy in a red suit?"
"Daniil Yerofeyev," said Stew. "That guy that accompanied Kha Xua in those videos!"
"Yo, Kong, get me a drink, I gotta do a spit take!" Pinstripe called out. Kong fetched him a liter of Dr. Pepper. "Is this diet?"
"Does it really matter?" asked Kong.
"I guess not."
Pinstripe chugged down some of the drink, and spat out the contents, before shouting the following:
"DANIIL YEROFEYEV IS EVIL?!"
"Watcha say?" Komodo Joe confronted Pinstripe.
"The Russian guy in the red suit is evil! from Grantor's tapes is evil!"
"Gimme that!" Joe snatched the Dr. Pepper from Pinstripe and drank some, before performing his own spit take. "No way!"
"What's all this commotion going on?" Grantor arrived on the scene, accompanied . "Why are you two wasting my soda?"
"Daniil Yerofeyev is evil!" Komodo Joe revealed the news to Grantor and Collator. Grantor didn't take it lightly; he clutched his heart, and fell onto the sofa in the living room.
"Grantor!" Collator exclaimed as Crash and company entered the mansion so they could tend to Grantor. (Apparently they left the door open, but Tiny came back and closed it.) Everyone huddled around Grantor.
"Why did you react like that?" asked Crash. "Is it because of something personal?"
"Daniil Yerofeyev and I are best friends," replied Grantor as he regained his composure. "Never would I expect him to be a villain of any sort."
"You were friends with Daniil?" asked Pasadena.
"Me, Yerofeyev, and Xuan have been the best of friends for such a long time...though I'm not in the right condition to give a backstory of any kind. Besides, it's close to midnight. Everybody should be in their rooms." Grantor took notice of Zoey and her children. "What brings you three here?"
"I happened to rescue this lady's children from the hands of the Carrot Offspring, and she decided to bring her kids along here to Excalibur," stated Cortex. "This lady is also my love interest; her name is Zoey, in case you were wondering."
Grantor and Collator couldn't help but give Cortex inquisitive and dubious looks.
"Not sure which one to believe, the fact that you have a love interest, or that you dealt with the deadly Carrot Offspring," remarked Collator.
"I'll let you and your children reside in the luxury condo down the street, if it's fine with you..." Grantor told Zoey.
"That would be absolutely PERFECT!" smiled Zoey. "What do you think of that, children?"
"Better than our old residence in Chinatown, I suppose," said Elijah.
"Did we bring any of our belongings here?" Amber realized.
"No worries, I'll warp one of my minions to Chinatown tomorrow morning to retrieve your stuff," assured Cortex.
"You are such a great help Cortex!" Zoey said to Cortex, as she bent down to face Cortex. (Zoey is like two feet taller than Cortex.)
"Kiss, kiss, kiss, kiss..." Tiny, Pinstripe, and Komodo Joe chanted in unison. Zoey simply patted Cortex's shoulder. "Awwww..."
The next morning, Inez alerted Chantex about the return of Daniil Yerofeyev. The dragon was livid.
"What purpose does he have here?!" he roared as his nostrils flared.
"Dave also aligned himself with Yerofeyev," Inez spilled out more details. "Claims that he was his true master all along."
"So what was Valestrom to him?"
"Simply a tool necessary for gathering all the masks. Dave did mention something about Valestrom being a faithful lackey of Yerofeyev."
"He chooses to side with the Russian, eh? Remind me to expel him from the academy!"
"Should we alert him or anything?"
"No, no, we'll let him figure it out on his own - soon he'll learn the errors of his ways."
"You and Yerofeyev must have a lot of beef going on."
"It's best not to explain it. You probably wouldn't understand..."
Chantex later left his room to go seek Mindy. He would later find the matchmaking girl in the school's computer room, using some sort of matchmaking simulation program.
"Excuse me," the dragon tried to get Mindy's attention. The girl turned around in her seat to face Chantex.
"It's not that often you come to see me," stated Mindy. "Is there something wrong?"
"The time has come. Daniil Yerofeyev has returned."
"Returned? From where?"
"Where exactly he came from is a question that is in a dire need of an answer. But for now, we must dig deep and find a way to counter what Yerofeyev may have up his sleeve."
"Does this mean?"
"I'm afraid so...We'll have to use the school's supercomputer - the one that we used to decipher which mutant from Cortex's Evolvo Ray was the chosen one."
At Grantor's mansion, everyone was eating breakfast. The only person missing was N. Trance, who was warped by Cortex to Chinatown to retrieve the belongings for Zoey and her kids. The three happened to reside at a condo not that far from Grantor's home.
"Could you tell us about your friendship with Xuan and Yerofeyev?" Aku asked Grantor. The badger let out a deep sigh.
"If you wish to hear, I'll tell you," said Grantor.
"Yay, story time!" cheered Roo.
"Calm yourself!" scolded Cortex.
"Alright then, I'll start off my story with this...Kha Xuan, Daniil Yerofeyev, and me - we used to be the chosen ones."
"Eeeeeeeeeeee!" Cortex squealed out of excitement.
"Yeah, you told me to calm myself..." frowned Roo.
"What was that all about?" questioned Chick.
"Just gleeful and excited to be associated with someone of high honor," replied Cortex. "You may continue your little story."
"Thank you, Cortex, for your random outburst," thanked Grantor. "Anyways, the three of us were the chosen ones. Our duty was to save Gemstone Island from evildoers, and pretty much anyone who dared to provoke The Dark Fate." -dramatic music- "As we grew older, we steadily lost our talents and abilities, and it was up to us to train a new trio of chosen ones."
"During the training, Grantor caught the flu, so Xuan and Yerofeyev was responsible for the pupils' teaching," noted Collator.
"Didn't you say that Xuan was killed or something?" Dingodile asked Grantor. "You know who killed him?"
"According to Yerofeyev and several eye witnesses, a particular student from Chantex's academy killed Xuan," explained Grantor. "Yerofeyev was deeply saddened by this loss."
"Speaking of Chantex and his academy..." Coco suddenly remembered the tidbit the lady from the Chinatown hair salon told her. "Do you know anything about Rossano Jacques? The school headmaster before Chantex took over?"
"Ah, yes! Rossano Jacques! Xuan, Yerofeyev and I were well acquainted with Jacques, though Jacques had a strained relationship with Yerofeyev."
"I, on the other hand, was best friends with Jacques," added Collator. "Whenever he wasn't busy, he would invite me other and will have a wide array of discussions together."
"I take that Jacques died as well?" asked Uka.
"He died in his office after being poisoned a long time ago," replied Grantor.
Grantor held his head down in sadness when he said this. Crash tried to cheer the badger up.
"Cortex found this mask while I was in the hospital," Crash reached into his backpack and showed Grantor the new mask, Gretchen.
"Cortex managed to find that mask without your help?!" Collator's eyes widened. "I'm in even more disbelief!"
"We helped Uncle Cortex along the way," Nina pointed out.
"Oh okay that sounds about right."
Cortex departed from the kitchen with a cloud of disdain hovering over him.
"Could it be?" Grantor inspected the mask. "Is this Gretchen?"
"Get your filthy paws away from me!" Gretchen snapped.
"It's her alright..."
"Glad to see you again, Gretchen," said Collator.
"Oh, shut up!" Gretchen was getting repulsive real quick. "Your kind got me into this stupid form!"
"My kind? What did my people ever do to you?"
"Turn me into a stinking mask! You were there when it happened."
"Blasphemy!"
"Let's try to be peaceful around here," Fake Crash got up and tried to be the peacemaker.
"No one told you to be a part of this!" Gretchen yelled at Fake Crash, prompting the bandicoot to sit back down. The minions were eating popcorn over their breakfast, greatly entertained by the squabble between Collator and Gretchen; the two were still going at it, until Grantor decided to intervene.
"Enough you two!" the badger yelled. "This is no way to start our day, with all this arguing and whatnot! How about we just watch some good ol' film instead?"
"Fine by me," Crash stuffed Gretchen back into his backpack, against the mask's will. Grantor brought the projector and Cortex (who was seething in his room) to the kitchen, and pressed the play button on the projector.
(Outsider dialogue is and always will be italicized.)
The video started off with Tripp, Lilac, and Detlef standing in front of a high upper-class mansion.
"Shall we go in?" Tripp asked his comrades.
"Let's do it!" replied Detlef as the trio walked through the entrance to the front door. Lilac knocked on the door, and an elderly lady opened it.
"What on earth could possibly bring you miscreants here?" the lady frowned.
"We came here to investigate," replied Tripp.
"Why exactly are they here?" questioned Coco.
"Ssshhh," Grantor hushed. "You will see eventually."
"Investigation, huh?" the old lady didn't sound that intrigued. "I'll let you in, but don't go around breaking any of my precious belongings!"
"No worries, we're too old to be breaking stuff or anything," assured Lilac.
The old lady let the trio inside, and there they found some blonde dude sweeping the floor.
"Is that supposed to be Isaac?" Crash recognized the dude's face.
"Isaac used to live with his mother until he was finished funding his business," explained Grantor.
"My little theory is starting to come to fruition..." Dingodile marveled as he rubbed his hands together.
"Sup bros?" Isaac waved to the trio as he swept.
"Did I tell you to greet our guests?" Isaac's mother, the old lady, scolded him. "Don't make give more chores..."
"Mom, mom, look at this!" some bratty teenage girl ran to the mother, and showed her a nasty pimple on her face. "I got a pimple on my adorable face! I can't go to the party like this!"
"Party?" Detlef raised an eyebrow.
"You did this to her!" the mother accused Isaac of giving his little sister a pimple. "You are no longer allowed to go to the party!"
"Aw what?" Isaac stopped cleaning. "It's not my fault my sister puts her social status ahead of her personal hygiene!"
"That's it! Go to your room!"
Isaac groaned and did as he was told.
"My apologies for having you witness that," the mother apologized to the trio.
"You must be a terrible mother," remarked Detlef.
"I'm sorry!"
"...Terrific mother, is what I meant to say."
The video immediately jumped to the trio, who were Isaac's room dressing the blonde up in a dress. Their plan was to sneak Isaac into the party by having him pretend to be a woman.
"Sure this would be a good plan?" Isaac asked as the three groomed him.
"This getup will be able to deceive everyone, including your mother," explained Tripp. "So you should be able to get inside the party, no problem."
Soon Isaac's little sister busted into the room and gasped.
"Is that my dress?" she asked.
"Nope, you must be imagining things," replied Detlef.
"MOM ISAAC IS WEARING MY DRESS!" Isaac's sister immediately marched down the stairs.
"She is one bratty girl," remarked Lilac.
"You have no idea," Isaac shook his head. His mother entered his room a few seconds later.
"Attempting to sneak out of the house so you could attend the party, I presume?" she snarled.
"Sneaking out of the house?!" frowned Detlef. "You got it all wrong!"
"We're, uh, trying something out on your son," explained Tripp.
"Hmph." Isaac's mother left the room.
"Whew, that was close," said Lilac.
"Let's hurry up before we cause even more suspicion," said Tripp.
The video jumped to Tripp driving Isaac to the party in a limousine he had rented.
"Lilac and Detlef should do just enough to keep your mom company and keep her from getting suspicious about you escaping from home," Tripp explained to Isaac.
"Thanks, man, for doing this," thanked Isaac. "I never would make it to the party without your guys' help."
"Aw, it's nothing."
Suddenly something important jumped in Tripp's mind. The lad veered off to the right into a different route...
...and that's when static filled the screen. Grantor tried his hardest to fix the projector.
"Boo!" Komodo Moe threw whatever popcorn he had left at the screen.
"Boo yourself!" retorted Collator. "Eating popcorn in the morning..."
"Sounds like you're the only one here upset about that," said Pasadena.
"I'm still in a pretty bad mood, that's all."
There was a knock at the door. Nina answered the door, and saw two government agents; one was a woman with a black ponytail, the other a dark-skinned man with cornrows.
"Is Crash Bandicoot here?" asked the woman.
"Right here!" Fake Crash held up his hand.
"We're looking for the real Crash."
Fake Crash held his head down in sadness.
"You need me?" Crash approached the government agents.
"We have national crisis on our hands, and we need your help," explained the agent with cornrows. "Follow us."
So Crash followed the two agents to the government car, weary of what to expect.
"Wait for me!" Aku called out as he followed after Crash, reaching the car just in time before it drove off.
Inside the vehicle, Crash had a plethora of great and vastly intriguing questions to ask the government agents, such as...
"Am I in big trouble?"
"Big trouble?" the agent with cornrows chuckled as he drove the car.
"The only trouble we have is concerning Daniil Yerofeyev," said the female agent.
"Hope you don't mind, but what are your names?" asked Aku. "Having the author refer to you as 'the agent with cornrows' and 'the female agent' isn't gonna cut it."
"Oh, right, our names," the agent in cornrows slapped himself on the head. "I'm Trevon Black, and my lovely partner here is Kristi Rothstein."
"We're both a part of the Gemstone Island Government," explained Kristi.
"This island has its own government?" Crash was astonished. "To think this whole time, it was self-ruled or something."
"But that's not all," said Trevon. "The glounce in the mansion, Collator? He used to be be the head of this island!"
"Say what...?"
"He used to be the ruler until this whole Dark Fate stuff was brought up. He left office, and sought peace and solitude at his isle home."
The car ride ended momentarily when Trevon parked the car in front of the Gemstone Island Government Building. A government agent with hair like Russell Brand approached the government car.
"Got the bandicoot?" he asked Trevon at the driver's window.
"Sure do," replied Trevon, as Crash got out of the car.
"Woah, woah, woah, you can't get out of the car like that, you'll expose yourself." The long-haired agent rushed Crash back inside the vehicle. "Name's Blaine, by the way."
"Nice to meet you," said Crash. "So why am I here for?"
"The prime minister of this island wants to speak with you about Daniil Yerofeyev. He believes you and him could work together and stop this Russian guy from who-knows-what."
"Collator recommended to the prime minister that he should collaborate with you," explained Kristi. "We'll take you inside, and show you around the building until the prime minister is ready."
Trevon, Kristi, and Blaine showed Crash and Aku around the government building...well, that was, until the three had to take care of some "important business". So another government agent, Malin, had to take up the duty of tour guide.
"As you can see here, a painting of Collator hangs in the alcove..." Malin sounded bored as she showed our heroes around the establishment.
"Best tour guide ever," Aku commended Malin's tour guide skills. Crash gave him a crazy look.
"The prime minister is waiting," a female government agent with brown curly hair appeared.
"About time," Malin sighed as she stroked her blonde, spiky hair. Several government officials took Crash and Aku and led them to the prime minister's room.
The prime minister, with his bald head and pointy nose, sat at the end of a table in a oval room, with a video projection screen right behind him. The government officials sat Crash in a seat opposite from where the Prime minister was sitting.
"Glad to finally see you in person, chosen one," the prime minister began the meeting. "Larry Knox's the name."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, let's skip to the chase," Crash really wanted this meeting to end soon. "I've heard that you want to team up with me and stop Yerofeyev; why would I want to work with you?"
"We'll discuss this, as soon as the important guest arrives...oh, here he comes right now!"
"Let me go this instant, get your grimy hands off of me!" a voice was heard from outside the door. "Hold me back, Uka, hold me back!"
"Hold you back?" Uka's voice was also heard. "I'm not even holding on to you!"
"Oh that is right...wrong situation...hehe."
"Please don't tell me who I think it is..." groaned Crash. The person Crash was thinking of was Cortex, who happened to be thrown into the oval room by Trevon, Kristi, and Blaine.
"The bandicoot's creator is here," announced Blaine.
"Why must I be here?" Cortex wondered as he got up and dusted himself off.
"You're Crash's 'moral support'," explained Trevon.
"Moral support? I'm an evil scientist!"
"For a so-called evil scientist, you sure do suck at your profession," remarked Kristi, prompting Cortex to fold his arms in disgust.
"You three may leave now," Knox dismissed the three government agents from the room, leaving the prime minister alone with Crash, Cortex, and the witch doctor brothers. "As you all probably have known already, Daniil Yerofeyev has returned, and he has returned with a..."
"Quick question," Cortex raised his hand. "Is there any refreshments?"
"Refreshments are not available. Anyways, Yerofeyev has returned with a..."
"Can I go use the restroom?"
"You'll just have to wait until this meeting is over."
"But I can't hold it any longer!"
"Do I have to incarcerate you in order to make you shut up?!"
Cortex kept his mouth shut.
"Excellent..." Knox sat back in his chair. "So, Crash, according to this little prophecy called The Dark Fate..." -dramatic music- "...you're the chosen hero destined to save not only the world...but the universe."
"That's right," said Crash as he picked his nose. Not the right impression a hero should display in front of a high-ranking government official, like Knox.
"In order for you to prove your worth as a prophesied hero, you must complete a little mission..."
Knox got up from his seat and turned on the screen projector, displaying film of a bunch of gangsters hoarding chemicals into a shoreline.
"Unless you've ever ventured into the boroughs of Excalibur, you may have bumped into some of the gangs that litter this very city," explained Knox. "Given that you're the chosen one and all, I was hoping that you could perhaps take care of this little epidemic."
"Not a problem," Crash flexed his fingers. "When can I start?"
"You can partake in this mission anytime before midnight. This is a duty I only have reserved for someone of your caliber. Don't let me down!"
End of Chapter 36
Back at Grantor's mansion, Collator noticed something - or someone - was amiss.
"Where's Isabel?" Collator asked Crunch and Yaya, who both got stumped real quick.
"She had to go to a dentist appointment!" Crunch made up an excuse on the fly.
"Dentist appointment? How come she hasn't revealed this to the others?"
"Isabel is very secretive and seclusive, in case you didn't notice," stated Yaya.
"I guess you're right...I must ask her about her search for the Excalibur sword, once she gets appointment is done - whatever time that is."
Collator left the two, heading for his room.
"When should we tell him about Daniil Yerofeyev kidnapping Isabel?" Crunch asked Yaya. "Not to mention the fact that he has the Excalibur sword in his possession?"
"Surely he'll find out on his own..." Yaya hoped.
Coming up next...
Crash, Cortex, Aku, and Uka team up together to deal with a horde of thugs and gangsters roaming about in Excalibur. Will this task do enough to validate Crash in the eyes of prime minister Larry Knox?