Chapter seven: Showdown
Dingodile and Coco sneaked down the final hallways of Cortex's castle, Coco following behind Dingodile. The hybrid led Coco for two reasons: One, he knew Cortex's castle like the back of his furry hand. Two, he wanted to protect her just in case N. Gin appeared before they got to Cortex.
Luckily, the latter reason wasn't needed, as the duo soon arrived at a dead end with a pair of doors at the end of the hallway. The two approached the door and lined up side by side, each pressing an ear to the door.
"Gah! Why won't those stupid buffoons answer?!" They heard Cortex shout from the other side of the door.
Dingodile grinned and gave Coco a thumbs-up. At least Cortex was still in there. He mouthed 'On the count of three' to Coco, who seemed to get the message, as she nodded.
The duo lined their shoulders up with the door and signaled each other that they were ready. Dingodile counted on his fingers, going from one to three. After he hit three, he and Coco broke the silence by slamming into the doors with their shoulders.
Coco smirked as the doors flew open. The plan had worked. She and Dingodile ran into the room.
Inside the room, the duo saw Cortex standing with his back turned to them, facing a small TV screen, pounding on the buttons of a keyboard attached to it. The screen was attached to an enormous machine in the middle of the room, tall enough to reach the very high ceiling. About halfway up the machine was a small seat big enough for Cortex to sit on, surrounded by several switches and buttons.
Once he heard the doors burst open, Cortex spun around, expecting to look at some of his minions. But what he saw instead was something that Cortex wouldn't expect. Dingodile and Coco, both of which his minions told were dead, running into the room, looking extremely mad.
Cortex's eyes bulged to be almost as big as his head, if that was even possible. "I-Impossible! Y-You're both supposed to be dead!" He stuttered.
"That's what you think!" Dingodile shouted.
"For everything you've put us through, we take out your next plan before you harm anyone else!" Coco added.
Cortex smirked. "We'll see about that."
Cortex pulled a remote from his pocket and quickly pressed the button on it. Dingodile and Coco watched in surprise as Cortex lifted off the ground due to the jetpack he was wearing. Cortex pulled his familiar gun from his other pocket as he started flying around the room.
"Get back down here!" Dingodile shouted, firing a ball of fire from his flame-thrower. Unfortunately, the fireball missed Cortex altogether.
Dingodile growled. "He's going too fast!" He said. He turned to Coco. "We need to think of some way to slow him down!"
"No problem!" Coco said as she reached into her backpack and pulled out her trusty laptop. "You stall him! I'll slow him down!"
Dingodile instantly knew what Coco was planning and nodded, looking up at the mad scientist flying around the room.
"Bring it on, shorty!" Dingodile taunted, knowing that would get Cortex's attention, as he hated the name 'shorty'.
Cortex's eye twitched. "I'll show you 'shorty', Dingodile!" He roared as he flew downwards, straight at Dingodile, firing his plasma gun repeatedly.
Dingodile wanted to get Cortex as far away from Coco as he could so she could slow him down, so he darted to the side, further from Coco. Cortex flew after the hybrid creature, just as Dingodile planned.
As Cortex flew closer to him, Dingodile pulled his flame-thrower back like a golf club. As soon as Cortex flew within reach, Dingodile swung his flame- thrower, striking the doctor with amazing impact. Cortex flew backwards, spinning rapidly. Once he stopped spinning, Cortex held onto his head.
"You'll pay for that!" Cortex growled.
Not taking his eyes off Cortex, Dingodile tilted his head in Coco's direction. "How's it coming, Coco?" He asked.
"Just give me a little more time." Coco instructed.
Dingodile nodded as he readied his flame-thrower again. He saw Cortex reaching for the trigger of his plasma gun and decided to switch to defense.
A ball of plasma shot from the barrel of Cortex's gun, sailing towards Dingodile. Dingodile jumped to the side as the energy shot flew past him. Cortex quickly fired another shot, which Dingodile avoided like the one before.
Dingodile quickly found himself avoiding shot after shot. He narrowly avoided some of them, but he avoided them nonetheless.
"Is that the best you got?" Dingodile taunted.
Infuriated, Cortex flew at Dingodile, coming in strangely fast for a jetpack. Although Cortex was coming in fast, Dingodile stood his ground, gaze hardened.
Once he decided that Cortex had gotten close enough, Dingodile leapt into the air and spun around, striking Cortex across the face with his tail. Cortex flew to the side, holding the side of his face where Dingodile had struck.
"You finished yet, Coco?" Dingodile asked.
"Almost." Coco replied, not taking her eyes off the laptop. "Just give me a little more time."
Again, Dingodile replied with a nod. He was determined to give Coco as much time as he could, and wouldn't let Cortex stop that.
Dingodile looked up and saw Cortex flying overhead. A sly smirk floated across his face, deciding to make Cortex nervous. Taking aim, Dingodile fired a ball of flames at Cortex, purposefully missing him to strike the ceiling close by. Cortex screeched to a halt in midair to avoid getting burned, did an instant 180 and flew in the other direction.
As Cortex was flying away from him, Dingodile fired several shots, aiming at Cortex's jetpack. Unfortunately, they all missed.
"He's still going too fast." Dingodile muttered. "Even I can't hit him like this."
"I did it!" Coco cried.
Hearing Coco, Dingodile smirked. He fired one more fireball at Cortex, this time striking the jetpack, igniting it instantly.
Cortex screamed as his jetpack exploded, sending him straight into the floor. Unfortunately, he wasn't out yet. Cortex leapt to his feet and stared at Dingodile and Coco.
"I don't understand how you two could still be alive." Cortex growled. "But I'll soon fix that. Soon, Crash will finally be destroyed and the world will be mine."
"Over our dead bodies!" Coco shouted, stepping up beside Dingodile.
Cortex smirked evilly. "Not exactly."
Dingodile and Coco each raised an eyebrow, wondering what Cortex meant by that. In the meantime, Cortex ran towards the enormous machine and started to climb it. Neither Dingodile nor Coco knew how Cortex could climb a machine like that so fast. But that wasn't the main priority, as Cortex had already gotten to the seat high off the ground. He sat down and grabbed the controls, grinning vilely.
"What are you up to this time, Cortex?" Coco challenged.
Cortex simply continued grinning. "This machine is my best creation." He laughed. "It will allow me to destroy Crash using that best weapons possible!"
Cortex steered a giant spiral laser attached to the controls to aim it at the duo.
"His friends." Cortex finished.
The mismatched pair's eyes sprang open. "You mean-" Coco began.
"Yes." Cortex interrupted. "This machine will brainwash you both, making you both serve me!"
"Forget it!" Dingodile shouted. "There's no way I'm working for you again!"
"I was brainwashed before!" Coco added. "I'm in no mood for a second time!"
"I'm afraid that neither of you have any choice." Cortex replied, pressing a few buttons.
As the laser was starting to power up, Dingodile turned to look at Coco. "You think you can deactivate this thing?"
Coco noticed a computer terminal attached to the machine, looked at Dingodile nodded. "If I'm given enough time, I should be able to override it."
Dingodile was silent, thinking of how he could distract Cortex so he wouldn't notice Coco. He looked at Coco again. "Don't worry. I've got a plan."
"Enjoyed your talk?" Cortex taunted. "Good, because you won't remember having it."
Cortex pressed a button on the control panel, causing the laser to start glowing. Dingodile saw this, but his gaze was hardened, determined to give Coco enough time.
Coco was shocked at what happened. As the laser fired a glowing, white beam of energy, Dingodile stood in front of her, protecting her from it. Dingodile cried out in pain as the laser beam slammed into his chest.
"DINGODILE!" Coco screamed.
Although he was in terrible pain, Dingodile looked over his shoulder at Coco. "DO IT! HURRY!!" He said through his teeth.
Coco quickly nodded as she scrambled around Dingodile and charged over to the computer terminal. She quickly pressed a few keys on the keyboard and brought up a window that showed a bar on the screen, quickly filling up.
Sweat dripped down Coco's face. She had to overrun the machine before the bar filled up, or Dingodile would become brainwashed.
The young bandicoot furiously typed on the keyboard as fast as she could. She quickly saw that the bar was at fifty percent, so she tried typing faster. Coco felt that she had never typed this fast in her life.
Coco saw that the bar had reached sixty-three percent. She was running out of time. Luckily, she was almost finished. She jabbed a few more keys and pressed the enter key, finally slowing the bar's speed. The bar kept on slowing until it finally came to a halt.
At ninety-seven percent.
Coco sighed in relief as she wiped her forehead.
"Insufficient energy transferred." The computer said. "Extracting."
Suddenly, the laser activated again, this time in reverse. Cortex tried to stop it, but failed miserably. The beam of energy pulled itself from Dingodile's chest until it was out completely. As soon as the energy had left him alone, Dingodile collapsed to one knee.
Coco knew now that Dingodile would be alright, so she quickly turned back to the computer terminal and pressed a few keys more. After pressing the enter key again, another message showed up on the screen.
"Thank you for activating the self-destruct sequence." The computer said. "Have a nice day."
Coco quickly ran to Dingodile and helped him to his feet. "We need to get out of here!" She cried.
Dingodile nodded as he led Coco to the side of the room.
In the meantime, Cortex was futilely trying to stop the self-destruct sequence.
Dingodile and Coco arrived at a window at the side of the room. A quick punch from Dingodile was all it took to take out the glass. He and Coco climbed on top of the windowsill and looked down. They saw nothing but trees.
"Are you sure about this, Dingodile?" Coco asked. "There's a chance we could miss the trees!"
"It's better than a positive chance of dying if you stick around with that machine when it blows!" Dingodile countered.
Coco was silent, realizing that Dingodile was right.
Although hesitant, Dingodile and Coco made a leap of faith, off the windowsill of the highest part of Cortex's castle, each plunging down towards the think bush of trees. And not a moment too soon, as an explosion erupted from the top of the tower, sending flames and smoke out of the windows.
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Ripper Roo hopped through the forest, helping to search for Dingodile and Coco. The two days Aku Aku had given them had already expired, and everyone in the village and formed a search party, each searching a different part of the forest on route to Cortex's castle.
While Crash, Crunch, N. Brio, Tiny, and Ripper Roo were searching on foot, calling out the duo's names (well, some of them, anyway), Pura, Polar and FC searched the forest, crawling around on all fours and sniffing the ground to try and pick up their scent (don't ask about FC. He's like that sometimes).
Ripper Roo soon found himself closer to Cortex's castle than anyone else. The blue kangaroo-dog searched high and low, but couldn't find either of the duo that had gone missing.
Ripper Roo sighed as he turned around to slowly sulk away. Suddenly, he saw something out of the corner of his large eye that made him freeze. Turning to the sight, both of Ripper Roo's eyes sprang open. He saw two lone figures hanging on a branch, each of them unconscious. Both were beaten and bruised.
Throwing himself into a state of panic, Ripper Roo screamed in worry as he started hopping in circles. He suddenly realized that he'd need help getting the two down, so Ripper Roo turned tail and bounded back into the jungle, hoping that he'd find another member of the search party soon.
Luckily, the search was short. Ripper Roo saw Crunch searching through some bushes. Ripper Roo let out a loud "YAH!", causing Crunch to jump in surprise.
Turning around, Crunch saw Ripper Roo standing there. "What do you want, Ripper?" He asked.
Jumping in place, Ripper Roo started pointing in the direction he came from, laughing. In his language, he was telling Crunch that he found Coco and Dingodile, but unfortunately, the large bandicoot didn't understand.
"Sorry Ripper." Crunch said, turning back around to face the bushes. "But we've gotta continue searching for Dingodile and Coco."
Ripper Roo growled in frustration. He had to think of some way to get Crunch to follow him.
Suddenly, a light went on inside Ripper Roo's head. Pulling his foot back, Ripper Roo gave it a few good spins before swinging.
*PUNT!*
"HEY!" Crunch shouted, turning around while rubbing his behind, where Ripper Roo had kicked him.
Ripper Roo stuck out his tongue and taunted the giant bandicoot.
"Why you little-" Crunch growled, lunging at Ripper Roo.
Luckily, Ripper Roo turned tail again and bounded off, with Crunch following closely behind.
Crunch chased the demented kangaroo hybrid through the jungle, determined to give him a good pounding. However, when Crunch emerged from the jungle, he saw a sight that made his eyes widen. Ripper Roo was standing on the ground, in between two unconscious bodies draped over a tree branch.
"Good grief!" Crunch said, turning to the jungle. "Crash! Tiny! Anybody!" He called out. "Ripper Roo found them!"
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Dingodile groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He expected to find himself in the cold, unforgiving jungle, but was surprised when he saw that he was in a very familiar doctor's office with several worried figures standing over him.
"Well, well, well." Crunch chuckled. "Look who's finally awake."
Dingodile tried moving his arms, but found that he couldn't bend his right one. Looking over, he saw his arm in a cast.
"What happened?" Dingodile asked. He saw Crash running from the room.
"When Crunch and Ripper Roo found you, you were both very injured. It was almost as if you jumped from the top of Cortex's castle." Dr. Tork replied as he came over with a clipboard.
"That's actually exactly what happened." Dingodile explained. "It was the only way we could escape the castle before Cortex's machine exploded."
Everyone nodded in understanding as Dr. Tork looked through at the clipboard. "Your injuries included a broken arm, two broken legs, one leg being broken in three different places, and a couple broken ribs." He explained.
"What about Coco?" Dingodile quickly asked, worried about her.
"I'm not too bad, Dingodile." A voice replied. Dingodile turned to see Coco limp into the room with a pair of crutches with Crash beside her.
"One broken leg, both arms broken, one at the wrist and one at the elbow, and a minor concussion." Dr. Tork explained, looking through the clipboard some more.
"Well, we're glad to see that you're both alright." N. Brio said. Everyone else nodded. "We'd better leave you two alone."
Crash, Crunch, Aku Aku, Tiny, N. Brio, FC, Pura, Polar and Dr. Tork all turned around and walked out of the office, leaving Dingodile and Coco alone.
"You feeling alright?" Dingodile asked as Coco sat down at the end of the bed he was laying on.
Coo nodded with a slight smirk. "Yeah, but I'm just surprised that I woke up before you. I mean, I was the one to get the concussion."
Dingodile chuckled, then sighed. "It looks like we won't be going on any missions for a while."
Coco shook her head. "That's alright." She replied. "As long as we're together, I'm fine with it."
Dingodile nodded. "Just so that we don't fall under the impression that the other's dead, I can work with it." He joked.
Coco chuckled lightly, then moved a little closer. She gently hugged Dingodile, not want to injure herself further with her two broken arms. "Thank you for everything, Dingodile."
"No problem, Coco." Dingodile replied with a grin.
END
Author's notes: Now, I'm sorry if the story didn't end the way you wanted it too, but I just ran out of ideas for this thing.
Well, I'm finally done this, so I can get to work on another multi-chapter story!
Don't worry. My work in this section isn't done. My next Crash fic is a one shot starring Norm.
Please read and review!
Dingodile and Coco sneaked down the final hallways of Cortex's castle, Coco following behind Dingodile. The hybrid led Coco for two reasons: One, he knew Cortex's castle like the back of his furry hand. Two, he wanted to protect her just in case N. Gin appeared before they got to Cortex.
Luckily, the latter reason wasn't needed, as the duo soon arrived at a dead end with a pair of doors at the end of the hallway. The two approached the door and lined up side by side, each pressing an ear to the door.
"Gah! Why won't those stupid buffoons answer?!" They heard Cortex shout from the other side of the door.
Dingodile grinned and gave Coco a thumbs-up. At least Cortex was still in there. He mouthed 'On the count of three' to Coco, who seemed to get the message, as she nodded.
The duo lined their shoulders up with the door and signaled each other that they were ready. Dingodile counted on his fingers, going from one to three. After he hit three, he and Coco broke the silence by slamming into the doors with their shoulders.
Coco smirked as the doors flew open. The plan had worked. She and Dingodile ran into the room.
Inside the room, the duo saw Cortex standing with his back turned to them, facing a small TV screen, pounding on the buttons of a keyboard attached to it. The screen was attached to an enormous machine in the middle of the room, tall enough to reach the very high ceiling. About halfway up the machine was a small seat big enough for Cortex to sit on, surrounded by several switches and buttons.
Once he heard the doors burst open, Cortex spun around, expecting to look at some of his minions. But what he saw instead was something that Cortex wouldn't expect. Dingodile and Coco, both of which his minions told were dead, running into the room, looking extremely mad.
Cortex's eyes bulged to be almost as big as his head, if that was even possible. "I-Impossible! Y-You're both supposed to be dead!" He stuttered.
"That's what you think!" Dingodile shouted.
"For everything you've put us through, we take out your next plan before you harm anyone else!" Coco added.
Cortex smirked. "We'll see about that."
Cortex pulled a remote from his pocket and quickly pressed the button on it. Dingodile and Coco watched in surprise as Cortex lifted off the ground due to the jetpack he was wearing. Cortex pulled his familiar gun from his other pocket as he started flying around the room.
"Get back down here!" Dingodile shouted, firing a ball of fire from his flame-thrower. Unfortunately, the fireball missed Cortex altogether.
Dingodile growled. "He's going too fast!" He said. He turned to Coco. "We need to think of some way to slow him down!"
"No problem!" Coco said as she reached into her backpack and pulled out her trusty laptop. "You stall him! I'll slow him down!"
Dingodile instantly knew what Coco was planning and nodded, looking up at the mad scientist flying around the room.
"Bring it on, shorty!" Dingodile taunted, knowing that would get Cortex's attention, as he hated the name 'shorty'.
Cortex's eye twitched. "I'll show you 'shorty', Dingodile!" He roared as he flew downwards, straight at Dingodile, firing his plasma gun repeatedly.
Dingodile wanted to get Cortex as far away from Coco as he could so she could slow him down, so he darted to the side, further from Coco. Cortex flew after the hybrid creature, just as Dingodile planned.
As Cortex flew closer to him, Dingodile pulled his flame-thrower back like a golf club. As soon as Cortex flew within reach, Dingodile swung his flame- thrower, striking the doctor with amazing impact. Cortex flew backwards, spinning rapidly. Once he stopped spinning, Cortex held onto his head.
"You'll pay for that!" Cortex growled.
Not taking his eyes off Cortex, Dingodile tilted his head in Coco's direction. "How's it coming, Coco?" He asked.
"Just give me a little more time." Coco instructed.
Dingodile nodded as he readied his flame-thrower again. He saw Cortex reaching for the trigger of his plasma gun and decided to switch to defense.
A ball of plasma shot from the barrel of Cortex's gun, sailing towards Dingodile. Dingodile jumped to the side as the energy shot flew past him. Cortex quickly fired another shot, which Dingodile avoided like the one before.
Dingodile quickly found himself avoiding shot after shot. He narrowly avoided some of them, but he avoided them nonetheless.
"Is that the best you got?" Dingodile taunted.
Infuriated, Cortex flew at Dingodile, coming in strangely fast for a jetpack. Although Cortex was coming in fast, Dingodile stood his ground, gaze hardened.
Once he decided that Cortex had gotten close enough, Dingodile leapt into the air and spun around, striking Cortex across the face with his tail. Cortex flew to the side, holding the side of his face where Dingodile had struck.
"You finished yet, Coco?" Dingodile asked.
"Almost." Coco replied, not taking her eyes off the laptop. "Just give me a little more time."
Again, Dingodile replied with a nod. He was determined to give Coco as much time as he could, and wouldn't let Cortex stop that.
Dingodile looked up and saw Cortex flying overhead. A sly smirk floated across his face, deciding to make Cortex nervous. Taking aim, Dingodile fired a ball of flames at Cortex, purposefully missing him to strike the ceiling close by. Cortex screeched to a halt in midair to avoid getting burned, did an instant 180 and flew in the other direction.
As Cortex was flying away from him, Dingodile fired several shots, aiming at Cortex's jetpack. Unfortunately, they all missed.
"He's still going too fast." Dingodile muttered. "Even I can't hit him like this."
"I did it!" Coco cried.
Hearing Coco, Dingodile smirked. He fired one more fireball at Cortex, this time striking the jetpack, igniting it instantly.
Cortex screamed as his jetpack exploded, sending him straight into the floor. Unfortunately, he wasn't out yet. Cortex leapt to his feet and stared at Dingodile and Coco.
"I don't understand how you two could still be alive." Cortex growled. "But I'll soon fix that. Soon, Crash will finally be destroyed and the world will be mine."
"Over our dead bodies!" Coco shouted, stepping up beside Dingodile.
Cortex smirked evilly. "Not exactly."
Dingodile and Coco each raised an eyebrow, wondering what Cortex meant by that. In the meantime, Cortex ran towards the enormous machine and started to climb it. Neither Dingodile nor Coco knew how Cortex could climb a machine like that so fast. But that wasn't the main priority, as Cortex had already gotten to the seat high off the ground. He sat down and grabbed the controls, grinning vilely.
"What are you up to this time, Cortex?" Coco challenged.
Cortex simply continued grinning. "This machine is my best creation." He laughed. "It will allow me to destroy Crash using that best weapons possible!"
Cortex steered a giant spiral laser attached to the controls to aim it at the duo.
"His friends." Cortex finished.
The mismatched pair's eyes sprang open. "You mean-" Coco began.
"Yes." Cortex interrupted. "This machine will brainwash you both, making you both serve me!"
"Forget it!" Dingodile shouted. "There's no way I'm working for you again!"
"I was brainwashed before!" Coco added. "I'm in no mood for a second time!"
"I'm afraid that neither of you have any choice." Cortex replied, pressing a few buttons.
As the laser was starting to power up, Dingodile turned to look at Coco. "You think you can deactivate this thing?"
Coco noticed a computer terminal attached to the machine, looked at Dingodile nodded. "If I'm given enough time, I should be able to override it."
Dingodile was silent, thinking of how he could distract Cortex so he wouldn't notice Coco. He looked at Coco again. "Don't worry. I've got a plan."
"Enjoyed your talk?" Cortex taunted. "Good, because you won't remember having it."
Cortex pressed a button on the control panel, causing the laser to start glowing. Dingodile saw this, but his gaze was hardened, determined to give Coco enough time.
Coco was shocked at what happened. As the laser fired a glowing, white beam of energy, Dingodile stood in front of her, protecting her from it. Dingodile cried out in pain as the laser beam slammed into his chest.
"DINGODILE!" Coco screamed.
Although he was in terrible pain, Dingodile looked over his shoulder at Coco. "DO IT! HURRY!!" He said through his teeth.
Coco quickly nodded as she scrambled around Dingodile and charged over to the computer terminal. She quickly pressed a few keys on the keyboard and brought up a window that showed a bar on the screen, quickly filling up.
Sweat dripped down Coco's face. She had to overrun the machine before the bar filled up, or Dingodile would become brainwashed.
The young bandicoot furiously typed on the keyboard as fast as she could. She quickly saw that the bar was at fifty percent, so she tried typing faster. Coco felt that she had never typed this fast in her life.
Coco saw that the bar had reached sixty-three percent. She was running out of time. Luckily, she was almost finished. She jabbed a few more keys and pressed the enter key, finally slowing the bar's speed. The bar kept on slowing until it finally came to a halt.
At ninety-seven percent.
Coco sighed in relief as she wiped her forehead.
"Insufficient energy transferred." The computer said. "Extracting."
Suddenly, the laser activated again, this time in reverse. Cortex tried to stop it, but failed miserably. The beam of energy pulled itself from Dingodile's chest until it was out completely. As soon as the energy had left him alone, Dingodile collapsed to one knee.
Coco knew now that Dingodile would be alright, so she quickly turned back to the computer terminal and pressed a few keys more. After pressing the enter key again, another message showed up on the screen.
"Thank you for activating the self-destruct sequence." The computer said. "Have a nice day."
Coco quickly ran to Dingodile and helped him to his feet. "We need to get out of here!" She cried.
Dingodile nodded as he led Coco to the side of the room.
In the meantime, Cortex was futilely trying to stop the self-destruct sequence.
Dingodile and Coco arrived at a window at the side of the room. A quick punch from Dingodile was all it took to take out the glass. He and Coco climbed on top of the windowsill and looked down. They saw nothing but trees.
"Are you sure about this, Dingodile?" Coco asked. "There's a chance we could miss the trees!"
"It's better than a positive chance of dying if you stick around with that machine when it blows!" Dingodile countered.
Coco was silent, realizing that Dingodile was right.
Although hesitant, Dingodile and Coco made a leap of faith, off the windowsill of the highest part of Cortex's castle, each plunging down towards the think bush of trees. And not a moment too soon, as an explosion erupted from the top of the tower, sending flames and smoke out of the windows.
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Ripper Roo hopped through the forest, helping to search for Dingodile and Coco. The two days Aku Aku had given them had already expired, and everyone in the village and formed a search party, each searching a different part of the forest on route to Cortex's castle.
While Crash, Crunch, N. Brio, Tiny, and Ripper Roo were searching on foot, calling out the duo's names (well, some of them, anyway), Pura, Polar and FC searched the forest, crawling around on all fours and sniffing the ground to try and pick up their scent (don't ask about FC. He's like that sometimes).
Ripper Roo soon found himself closer to Cortex's castle than anyone else. The blue kangaroo-dog searched high and low, but couldn't find either of the duo that had gone missing.
Ripper Roo sighed as he turned around to slowly sulk away. Suddenly, he saw something out of the corner of his large eye that made him freeze. Turning to the sight, both of Ripper Roo's eyes sprang open. He saw two lone figures hanging on a branch, each of them unconscious. Both were beaten and bruised.
Throwing himself into a state of panic, Ripper Roo screamed in worry as he started hopping in circles. He suddenly realized that he'd need help getting the two down, so Ripper Roo turned tail and bounded back into the jungle, hoping that he'd find another member of the search party soon.
Luckily, the search was short. Ripper Roo saw Crunch searching through some bushes. Ripper Roo let out a loud "YAH!", causing Crunch to jump in surprise.
Turning around, Crunch saw Ripper Roo standing there. "What do you want, Ripper?" He asked.
Jumping in place, Ripper Roo started pointing in the direction he came from, laughing. In his language, he was telling Crunch that he found Coco and Dingodile, but unfortunately, the large bandicoot didn't understand.
"Sorry Ripper." Crunch said, turning back around to face the bushes. "But we've gotta continue searching for Dingodile and Coco."
Ripper Roo growled in frustration. He had to think of some way to get Crunch to follow him.
Suddenly, a light went on inside Ripper Roo's head. Pulling his foot back, Ripper Roo gave it a few good spins before swinging.
*PUNT!*
"HEY!" Crunch shouted, turning around while rubbing his behind, where Ripper Roo had kicked him.
Ripper Roo stuck out his tongue and taunted the giant bandicoot.
"Why you little-" Crunch growled, lunging at Ripper Roo.
Luckily, Ripper Roo turned tail again and bounded off, with Crunch following closely behind.
Crunch chased the demented kangaroo hybrid through the jungle, determined to give him a good pounding. However, when Crunch emerged from the jungle, he saw a sight that made his eyes widen. Ripper Roo was standing on the ground, in between two unconscious bodies draped over a tree branch.
"Good grief!" Crunch said, turning to the jungle. "Crash! Tiny! Anybody!" He called out. "Ripper Roo found them!"
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Dingodile groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He expected to find himself in the cold, unforgiving jungle, but was surprised when he saw that he was in a very familiar doctor's office with several worried figures standing over him.
"Well, well, well." Crunch chuckled. "Look who's finally awake."
Dingodile tried moving his arms, but found that he couldn't bend his right one. Looking over, he saw his arm in a cast.
"What happened?" Dingodile asked. He saw Crash running from the room.
"When Crunch and Ripper Roo found you, you were both very injured. It was almost as if you jumped from the top of Cortex's castle." Dr. Tork replied as he came over with a clipboard.
"That's actually exactly what happened." Dingodile explained. "It was the only way we could escape the castle before Cortex's machine exploded."
Everyone nodded in understanding as Dr. Tork looked through at the clipboard. "Your injuries included a broken arm, two broken legs, one leg being broken in three different places, and a couple broken ribs." He explained.
"What about Coco?" Dingodile quickly asked, worried about her.
"I'm not too bad, Dingodile." A voice replied. Dingodile turned to see Coco limp into the room with a pair of crutches with Crash beside her.
"One broken leg, both arms broken, one at the wrist and one at the elbow, and a minor concussion." Dr. Tork explained, looking through the clipboard some more.
"Well, we're glad to see that you're both alright." N. Brio said. Everyone else nodded. "We'd better leave you two alone."
Crash, Crunch, Aku Aku, Tiny, N. Brio, FC, Pura, Polar and Dr. Tork all turned around and walked out of the office, leaving Dingodile and Coco alone.
"You feeling alright?" Dingodile asked as Coco sat down at the end of the bed he was laying on.
Coo nodded with a slight smirk. "Yeah, but I'm just surprised that I woke up before you. I mean, I was the one to get the concussion."
Dingodile chuckled, then sighed. "It looks like we won't be going on any missions for a while."
Coco shook her head. "That's alright." She replied. "As long as we're together, I'm fine with it."
Dingodile nodded. "Just so that we don't fall under the impression that the other's dead, I can work with it." He joked.
Coco chuckled lightly, then moved a little closer. She gently hugged Dingodile, not want to injure herself further with her two broken arms. "Thank you for everything, Dingodile."
"No problem, Coco." Dingodile replied with a grin.
END
Author's notes: Now, I'm sorry if the story didn't end the way you wanted it too, but I just ran out of ideas for this thing.
Well, I'm finally done this, so I can get to work on another multi-chapter story!
Don't worry. My work in this section isn't done. My next Crash fic is a one shot starring Norm.
Please read and review!