Chapter Two
Splitting Up
"Well I just checked out Papu-Papu and the natives," Aku-Aku said as he reappeared out of the jungle to the clearing where Crash and his friends were. "Apparently from what I overheard, they too have been having trouble with dolphins. But, there are also problems with sharks as well."
"And that killer whale?" Coco asked, feeling most distraught for poor Gleam.
"I heard something about a sea monster that the description matched a killer whale," Aku-Aku added.
"M-m-monster?" Spark stuttered in fright.
"They probably don't know what a killer are, they don't usually come near these islands at all." Coco suggested. "That killer whale must be pretty mad to be doing things like that."
"What did Gleam say," Crash began. "About them being slaves because of those harnesses?"
"She said that the harnesses controlled their minds," Coco said. "That's probably the reason for the sudden aggression of all these creatures."
"Cortex," Crash suggested, hate on his voice. "It just has to be him. No-one else is that diabolical to do such an act."
"Maybe so," Aku-Aku answered, his voice full of fret. "But in order to find out this mystery, you'll have to get to the bottom of it. Which is at the bottom of the sea..."
Crash and Coco winced at this remark. Neither were very good swimmers and as far as they knew, there were no submarines that they had nicked from Cortex. Although...
"We have that advanced scuba gear N. Gin was developing," Coco suggested. "You know, the one that extracts the oxygen from the water and also have those hydro pumps for added speed. Oh, and the voice communicators inside the masks."
"But no weapons or protection," Crash added. "If a shark attacks us, we can't defend our-selves. And that killer whale, well... it could eat either of us in a single chomp."
"I never said it would be easy, but it's the only chance we have," Coco defended.
"Here we go again," Polar sighed as he sat down and began to pout. "We're gonna be left out of this adventure as well."
"Well, I'm afraid we don't have a set of scuba gear for each of us," Coco said to the cub, giving his white fur a rub. "So what Crash? We go with that idea?"
"Suppose we have no other choice," the bandicoot shrugged. "But its gonna be quite dangerous for the two of us down there without weapons."
Coco nodded in agreement. "Let's get the gear and head back to the beach."
Hiding behind a bush as he pulled down his jeans and pulled up his wetsuit pants, was Crash. Coco disappeared behind several trees opposite as she stripped completely bare before climbing into her full body wetsuit. Both bandicoots meet each other on the sand.
Crash was without a top, but was wearing electric blue and yellow wetsuit pants. Coco was wearing a full body black and pink wet suit. There were two piles of scuba gear on the ground; one was blue and yellow, while the other was a bright pink.
Coco lifted her mask and communicator to her and said, "Testing... one, two, three."
Crash gave her the thumbs up to say he'd heard her through his own one. Lifting the heavy tanks onto his back, Crash secured the fastenings and tested the re-breather, before connecting it to the mask. It was working fine. Coco did the same and then pulled the mask over her face. It covered the entire face, not just the eyes.
Once both were completely decked out, flippers in their paws, they turned to Aku and the others waiting a few feet away. "Good luck," the mask beamed upon them as the animals all smiled to them.
"Well, let's go Crash," Coco's voice sounded static through the communicator.
"I agree," he added as he paced towards the surf and then waded into the deeper water, pulling on his flippers before he disappeared underneath the surface, Coco mere seconds behind him.
"This is quite odd," Coco mumbled through her mask as the two bandicoots slowly ghosted through the nearby coral reefs. The old charts in Cortex's Castle they'd once seen showed that impassable reefs separated the three islands, except at certain points. This mystery could be found almost anyway within the labyrinth of coral.
Down here, under the waves, it looked beautiful. The coral glowed a brilliant pink and green and red and every other color there was of coral. The sand far below them was a fine white color.
But there was something missing...
"Yeah," Crash answered his sister. "Reefs are supposed to be full of life. Where is all the fish?"
Coco glanced about. She spotted a few fish dart into shelter. She saw the red eyes of a moray eel slowly shrink back deeper into its grotto. "Hiding. They are all in hiding Crash."
Crash looked about too and saw more instances of creatures darting for cover. "The whole waters surrounding these islands seem frightened. What could be going on?"
A shadow fell over the bandicoots. They glanced up to see what it was. In a native canoe, were Papu-Papu and two native rowers. Papu seemed to be saying something, his lips moving silently, when he held a dead pig out over the water.
"They are making a sacrifice," Coco observed. "To make the seas normal again. Thankfully, we aren't the sacrifice this time!"
Crash snorted then noticed as blood dripped from the carcass in Papu's hands. "Uh, Coco... isn't there a creature that is attracted by blood?"
"Sharks!" Coco panicked at the sudden thought. "A feeding frenzy of sharks. We gotta get moving!"
But, before Papu dropped the pig into the water, one of the natives pointed in a direction, seeming to shout something. At once, they got rowing, Papu hurled the pig in that direction and the canoe was gone in a few seconds.
"What was that about?" Crash asked.
Then, from the murky blue, a shape appeared. It swam up to the pig and swallowed it in a single bite. It grinned and approached Crash and Coco. "A wild pig for starters, a male bandicoot for a main and a girl for dessert... sounds lovely..." the black and white face grinned, a female's voice.
Crash and Coco stared at the killer whale in shock. It was so large and powerful, jaws riddled with razor canine teeth and two large energy cannons were fixed to its back.
Coco swallowed at took a stand. "We know that you're being controlled. You must fight it! You're not a slave. Fight it and free your-self!"
The killer whale stared in disbelief for a few seconds, before bursting into a fit of laughter. "You foolish creatures. The harnesses do not control me. No, the delphine and sharkian kinds are, but I am not. I work on my own accord."
"But, why are you allied to Cortex?" Crash asked.
"Who?" the killer whale asked.
"Don't you know who's behind this?" Coco questioned.
The killer whale shook her head. "I know not. I never saw his face, just his voice." Crash nodded slightly to Coco. "But if you must know why, I chose to so I can become Queen of the World's Seas. All creatures in the sea will bow to me, Okura." Her greedy eyes then fell upon Crash and Coco in the way Tina eyed a meal. "And now, all this talking has made me VERY hungry..." Her tongue licked her licks.
"Uh, Crash," Coco muttered. "What now?"
"Turbo Fans Activate!" Crash screamed, as he pressed a button on the mask. Two large fans at the base of his air tanks erupted and he began to shoot though the bandicoot water like a torpedo. Coco was mere seconds behind him.
There was a roar of rage and a few energy shots fired that blew nearby coral to bits, but the monster Okura chose not to give chase. She simply took her time.
Crash and Coco both did not stop jetting with their air tanks for quite some time until the ground opened up beneath them. The reason they stopped was as a reaction to what lay before them.
An underwater base. Two main buildings, a large tower and a few other half constructed buildings.
"Wow," was all Coco had to say.
After a moment, Crash noticed dolphins and sharks working. They were working to build the buildings, and tirelessly. All wore the harness that Gleam had wore.
Then, a dolphin swam past them, ignoring them completely, another harness that looked as if it held items was lashed across its body. Coco started after it, but Crash grabbed her. "It's not her," he said.
"What do you mean?" Coco asked. "It's Gleam!"
"No," Crash answered simply. "She's being controlled again. It's not the Gleam we know. If we distract her, she could raise an alarm or something."
Coco nodded, understanding Crash's logic. She stared down at the city being constructed. "Right Crash, we'll cover more ground if we split up. You take the building to the left, I'll take the one on the right. We meet at that tower in two hours time."
Crash gave her the thumbs up. "Let's keep a low profile. I'll see you in two hours Coco."
And then both bandicoots split up, heading their different ways.
Splitting Up
"Well I just checked out Papu-Papu and the natives," Aku-Aku said as he reappeared out of the jungle to the clearing where Crash and his friends were. "Apparently from what I overheard, they too have been having trouble with dolphins. But, there are also problems with sharks as well."
"And that killer whale?" Coco asked, feeling most distraught for poor Gleam.
"I heard something about a sea monster that the description matched a killer whale," Aku-Aku added.
"M-m-monster?" Spark stuttered in fright.
"They probably don't know what a killer are, they don't usually come near these islands at all." Coco suggested. "That killer whale must be pretty mad to be doing things like that."
"What did Gleam say," Crash began. "About them being slaves because of those harnesses?"
"She said that the harnesses controlled their minds," Coco said. "That's probably the reason for the sudden aggression of all these creatures."
"Cortex," Crash suggested, hate on his voice. "It just has to be him. No-one else is that diabolical to do such an act."
"Maybe so," Aku-Aku answered, his voice full of fret. "But in order to find out this mystery, you'll have to get to the bottom of it. Which is at the bottom of the sea..."
Crash and Coco winced at this remark. Neither were very good swimmers and as far as they knew, there were no submarines that they had nicked from Cortex. Although...
"We have that advanced scuba gear N. Gin was developing," Coco suggested. "You know, the one that extracts the oxygen from the water and also have those hydro pumps for added speed. Oh, and the voice communicators inside the masks."
"But no weapons or protection," Crash added. "If a shark attacks us, we can't defend our-selves. And that killer whale, well... it could eat either of us in a single chomp."
"I never said it would be easy, but it's the only chance we have," Coco defended.
"Here we go again," Polar sighed as he sat down and began to pout. "We're gonna be left out of this adventure as well."
"Well, I'm afraid we don't have a set of scuba gear for each of us," Coco said to the cub, giving his white fur a rub. "So what Crash? We go with that idea?"
"Suppose we have no other choice," the bandicoot shrugged. "But its gonna be quite dangerous for the two of us down there without weapons."
Coco nodded in agreement. "Let's get the gear and head back to the beach."
Hiding behind a bush as he pulled down his jeans and pulled up his wetsuit pants, was Crash. Coco disappeared behind several trees opposite as she stripped completely bare before climbing into her full body wetsuit. Both bandicoots meet each other on the sand.
Crash was without a top, but was wearing electric blue and yellow wetsuit pants. Coco was wearing a full body black and pink wet suit. There were two piles of scuba gear on the ground; one was blue and yellow, while the other was a bright pink.
Coco lifted her mask and communicator to her and said, "Testing... one, two, three."
Crash gave her the thumbs up to say he'd heard her through his own one. Lifting the heavy tanks onto his back, Crash secured the fastenings and tested the re-breather, before connecting it to the mask. It was working fine. Coco did the same and then pulled the mask over her face. It covered the entire face, not just the eyes.
Once both were completely decked out, flippers in their paws, they turned to Aku and the others waiting a few feet away. "Good luck," the mask beamed upon them as the animals all smiled to them.
"Well, let's go Crash," Coco's voice sounded static through the communicator.
"I agree," he added as he paced towards the surf and then waded into the deeper water, pulling on his flippers before he disappeared underneath the surface, Coco mere seconds behind him.
"This is quite odd," Coco mumbled through her mask as the two bandicoots slowly ghosted through the nearby coral reefs. The old charts in Cortex's Castle they'd once seen showed that impassable reefs separated the three islands, except at certain points. This mystery could be found almost anyway within the labyrinth of coral.
Down here, under the waves, it looked beautiful. The coral glowed a brilliant pink and green and red and every other color there was of coral. The sand far below them was a fine white color.
But there was something missing...
"Yeah," Crash answered his sister. "Reefs are supposed to be full of life. Where is all the fish?"
Coco glanced about. She spotted a few fish dart into shelter. She saw the red eyes of a moray eel slowly shrink back deeper into its grotto. "Hiding. They are all in hiding Crash."
Crash looked about too and saw more instances of creatures darting for cover. "The whole waters surrounding these islands seem frightened. What could be going on?"
A shadow fell over the bandicoots. They glanced up to see what it was. In a native canoe, were Papu-Papu and two native rowers. Papu seemed to be saying something, his lips moving silently, when he held a dead pig out over the water.
"They are making a sacrifice," Coco observed. "To make the seas normal again. Thankfully, we aren't the sacrifice this time!"
Crash snorted then noticed as blood dripped from the carcass in Papu's hands. "Uh, Coco... isn't there a creature that is attracted by blood?"
"Sharks!" Coco panicked at the sudden thought. "A feeding frenzy of sharks. We gotta get moving!"
But, before Papu dropped the pig into the water, one of the natives pointed in a direction, seeming to shout something. At once, they got rowing, Papu hurled the pig in that direction and the canoe was gone in a few seconds.
"What was that about?" Crash asked.
Then, from the murky blue, a shape appeared. It swam up to the pig and swallowed it in a single bite. It grinned and approached Crash and Coco. "A wild pig for starters, a male bandicoot for a main and a girl for dessert... sounds lovely..." the black and white face grinned, a female's voice.
Crash and Coco stared at the killer whale in shock. It was so large and powerful, jaws riddled with razor canine teeth and two large energy cannons were fixed to its back.
Coco swallowed at took a stand. "We know that you're being controlled. You must fight it! You're not a slave. Fight it and free your-self!"
The killer whale stared in disbelief for a few seconds, before bursting into a fit of laughter. "You foolish creatures. The harnesses do not control me. No, the delphine and sharkian kinds are, but I am not. I work on my own accord."
"But, why are you allied to Cortex?" Crash asked.
"Who?" the killer whale asked.
"Don't you know who's behind this?" Coco questioned.
The killer whale shook her head. "I know not. I never saw his face, just his voice." Crash nodded slightly to Coco. "But if you must know why, I chose to so I can become Queen of the World's Seas. All creatures in the sea will bow to me, Okura." Her greedy eyes then fell upon Crash and Coco in the way Tina eyed a meal. "And now, all this talking has made me VERY hungry..." Her tongue licked her licks.
"Uh, Crash," Coco muttered. "What now?"
"Turbo Fans Activate!" Crash screamed, as he pressed a button on the mask. Two large fans at the base of his air tanks erupted and he began to shoot though the bandicoot water like a torpedo. Coco was mere seconds behind him.
There was a roar of rage and a few energy shots fired that blew nearby coral to bits, but the monster Okura chose not to give chase. She simply took her time.
Crash and Coco both did not stop jetting with their air tanks for quite some time until the ground opened up beneath them. The reason they stopped was as a reaction to what lay before them.
An underwater base. Two main buildings, a large tower and a few other half constructed buildings.
"Wow," was all Coco had to say.
After a moment, Crash noticed dolphins and sharks working. They were working to build the buildings, and tirelessly. All wore the harness that Gleam had wore.
Then, a dolphin swam past them, ignoring them completely, another harness that looked as if it held items was lashed across its body. Coco started after it, but Crash grabbed her. "It's not her," he said.
"What do you mean?" Coco asked. "It's Gleam!"
"No," Crash answered simply. "She's being controlled again. It's not the Gleam we know. If we distract her, she could raise an alarm or something."
Coco nodded, understanding Crash's logic. She stared down at the city being constructed. "Right Crash, we'll cover more ground if we split up. You take the building to the left, I'll take the one on the right. We meet at that tower in two hours time."
Crash gave her the thumbs up. "Let's keep a low profile. I'll see you in two hours Coco."
And then both bandicoots split up, heading their different ways.