In our previous story, "Rumble in the Rustlands," Pinstripe and Geary, tired of not receiving any new legendary skins, join forces and nuke the planet earth. Attempting to claim the desolate wastelands as their own, they are luckily thwarted by Crash Bandicoot, Coco, Dr. Neo Cortex and all their friends and allies, who had joined forces in order to stop them. With the world restored back to its normal state and everyone resuming their normal lives, Oxide orders Pinstripe and Geary to come with him to his home planet of Gasmoxia for questioning by their emperor, which is where our story begins...

Deep in outer space, a spaceship approaches the distant planet of Gasmoxia. It docks at the bow of a massive mothership. The cargo bay doors open and out of the ship steps Nitros Oxide, followed by his righthand henchmen, Zam and Zem, along with the Nitro Kart bosses (Krunk, Nash and the Norms), who drag Pinstripe and Geary out of the ship and into the hull of the mothership.

Moments later, Pinstripe and Geary are led by Oxide and his minions into a large throne room. Pinstripe looks around and sees the letter "V" plastered all over the walls and tapestry in the room. He also spots pictures of Oxide, Zam, Zem and the Nitro Kart bosses, with Geary's picture in particular being defaced with the word "TRAITOR!" being scribbled all over it. Pinstripe then turns to Geary, who is shaking with absolute fear.

"What's your problem?" Pinstripe asks him.

"Oh! I'm not ready to face my ultimate master!" says Geary, trembling with fear. "He's gonna turn me into his own personal coffee maker when he gets done with me!"

"Quit yer bellyachin', Geary!" says Pinstripe. "Together, we can teach this so-called 'emperor' a thing or two about who runs the joint."

"Trust me on this, Pinny! This is one maniacal ruler you do NOT want to mess with!" Geary cries in fear. "He threatened to blow up the earth long before you did!"

"Silence, you two!" shouts Oxide. "Our leader, the most accomplished racer in the entire galaxy, approaches."

A triumphant fanfare plays. A large set of doors swing open as Real Velo enters the room and approaches his throne with everyone looking on. Geary is practically shaking with fear as Pinstripe watches wide-eyed. Real Velo stops in front of his throne and turns to face Pinstripe and Geary.

"Greetings, my loyal subjects!" Real Velo calls out. "Bow before me!"

Pinstripe snickers before collapsing into hysterics as he approaches Real Velo.

"You serious, Oxide? This is your ruler? This little shrimp here?" Pinstripe asks before sarcastically continuing. "Ooohhh, I'm really scared! Somebody help me!"

"Pinstripe, what are you doing?!" Geary asks in a panic. "Don't piss him off!"

"Boo-hoo-hoo! Oh, I'm so frightened!" Pinstripe mockingly says. "I want my mommy! Wah! Wah! Wah-wah-wah—"

Suddenly, Pinstripe's glee quickly turns to fear as he hears the sound of loud, rumbling footsteps.

"Of course, I didn't mean me." Real Velo chuckled. "I meant the big guy."

Geary gasps in horror and says, "You don't mean..."

Everyone, including Oxide, reacts in shock and fear as they witness the "big guy" entering the room with pounding footsteps. The large shadow of the "big guy" falls over Pinstripe and Geary, who are shaking with absolute fear while Real Velo smugly grins at the pair.

"Oh, heaven help me." Pinstripe whimpers.

The "big guy" is revealed to be none other than the one and only Emperor Velo XXVII, who looks down at the pair with a glare in his eyes and a smug grin on his face. Geary is so scared by Velo's presence that he falls apart, literally, while Pinstripe is dangerously close to wetting his pants.

"Now then, as I was saying..." Emperor Velo says, "Bow down to me, Emperor Velo XXVII, ruler of the galaxy!"

Everyone expect Pinstripe bows down before Velo's presence. Krunk, not seeing Pinstripe bowing, punches him in the shin, forcing Pinstripe to the ground in a crouching position.

"Please, your Grace..." Geary says as he reassembles himself. "Have mercy on us. All we wanted was—"

"Silence, traitor!" Velo shouts to Geary. "I should turn you into my own personal coffee maker by the time I get through with you!"

"But, I don't understand, your Highness." Oxide says to Velo as everyone gets up from bowing. "How are you even here when your real form is standing right beside you?"

"Yeah!" exclaims Nash. "We all saw you explode after the earthlings beat you in the Galactic Circuit!"

"Perhaps I can explain." Real Velo says as he stands in front of everyone and clears his throat. "You see, when I learned last month that Geary and this rat nuked the entire planet earth for something that really shouldn't be that big of a deal, I took it upon myself to personally remind these two of who gets to conquer planets in this galaxy. So, I had Oxide and his minions help the heroes stop you twerps, and you did a great job by the way, Oxide."

"Why, thank you, your Grace." Oxide says to Real Velo.

Real Velo continues, "Anyways, once you two were defeated by Crash Bandicoot, I had Oxide bring the two of you here to me. Now, you'll see who the real mastermind is here!"

"Yes, but that still doesn't explain how your more popular form came back to life!" Big Norm says to the Velos.

"Ah, yes." Real Velo says. "Please forgive me, Norm. I got a little carried away. So, while Oxide was busy helping the heroes and villains, I went to our Research & Development facility and had them reconstruct my more intimidating form here over the past month. This new robotic form is much more advanced than the old technology we had back in 2003. Looks almost lifelike!"

"Pfft. Still looks fake to me." Pinstripe scoffs. Moments later, Velo smacks him on the head with his scepter, shouting, "Silence!"

Velo regains his composure and finishes for Real Velo, saying, "And once this new form was finished, my real self over here made an exact copy of his own brain and implanted it into my head! Now I can move about independently without the need for mini-me to get inside me!"

"...Well, that doesn't sound weird in the slightest..." Oxide quips, feeling that Velo's words came out wrong.

"Anyways, I'll just leave the two of you here with the big guy." Real Velo says to Pinstripe and Geary. "The fans wanted the real me, so they're going to get the real me!"

As Real Velo starts to leave the throne room, he motions for Krunk, Nash and the Norms to follow him, saying to them, "Come along, guys! Back to my citadel!"

They all leave the throne room, closing the door behind them, leaving Pinstripe, Geary, Oxide, Zam and Zem in the throne room with Velo.

"So, you're the rat I've been hearing so much about." Velo says to Pinstripe as he approaches him and Geary. "Nuking the earth over something as trivial as not getting a legendary skin? You got some moxie there. That took a lot of guts and I am quite impressed, but just so you know, there's only room for one mastermind wanting to destroy earth, and that one is me."

"Yeah?" Pinstripe says to him. "So what're ya going to do? Force me to clean your entire space cruiser here with Geary? I don't think so!"

"Please don't make me have to clean your mothership, sire!" Geary begs on bended knees. "Do you have any idea how long it took me to clean your citadel?"

"Silence!" Velo shouts, before he stops to think for a minute. "Hmmm... tell you what. I might be willing to spare both of your lives."

"Really?" Pinstripe asks with glee. "Great!"

"BUT, I'll only spare you both if you two help me with my next plan to conquer earth." Velo says to the pair. "What do you say?"

"Another chance to stop that wretched bandicoot and reclaim my trophy wife, Tawna?" Pinstripe asks, getting excited with Velo's offer. "Sounds great! Count us in!"

"Excellent!" Velo gleefully exclaims.

Geary taps Pinstripe on the shoulder and asks him, "But, Pinstripe. Don't you remember? Tawna gave you a restraining order."

"Restraining order? Please, what restraining order?" Pinstripe scoffs as he pulls out Tawna's restraining order and rips it to pieces. "No restraining order's gonna keep me from my one true love!"

Oxide face palms and says to Zam and Zem, "Wow. This rat will never learn, will he?"

Zam shakes his head in concern and Zem simply burps.

"Come along, you two!" Velo says as he motions Pinstripe and Geary to follow him. "Let me show you to my research and development lab. From there, I'll explain everything you need to know!"

Before Pinstripe and Geary can follow Velo, Oxide stops them and warns, "Now, you listen to me, you two. Don't even think about trying anything funny with our supreme ruler, lest you both want to spend to rest of your days doing Zem's laundry! He's got stains so foul, it'll take weeks to scrub them out!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever." Pinstripe says, brushing off Oxide's warning as they all follow Velo out of the room and to the R&D department.