AUTHOR NOTES
If you saw the intro part, then thank you very much for seeing it. Even if I did get a small response, I still feel happy with what's been layered down.
This next part basically allows the listener to understand the purpose of why the five anthros from the future, lead by Crash, came to 1981 to help Cortex - their own foe.
It also introduces the concept of a "wolarcoot" creature into the story. These creatures, established by long-term Deviantart buddy Cherry Vincent, are shown as god-like creatures from a distant time (several millennia ago) and planet (Yevron). Even she was happy with my thoughts on making a critter for myself, as she was with several other friends she had before.
I was originally going to release this tomorrow, but because of my dad wanting to rebuild the computer from scratch, it had to come right now.
Either way, have fun reading the part.
Peace out,
-Rexy-
---
(black and white photos can be seen on screen)
The photos showed that of a tropical paradise, with the sun starting to loom through the palm trees. In the background, a mountain can be seen, with a castle standing high upon it. Between the scenery, a shadow can be seen making its way up towards it.
"We live roughly 25 years away from your time, on an island far from here. You had a link to our lives, and were essential to our work. But then, it was until one fateful day came into hand. Some hideous creature came and went inside a time machine of yours. And over time, your own torso was starting to melt down into nothing. It seemed that this creature wanted to affect your very existence on the planet. Worried about what could happen to you, all five of us went inside it ourselves, wondering what kind of dastardly tricks he had in mind."
(scene turns back to normal)
"The chase brought us over here, and now that we've ended up finding you, Neo Cortex," said Crash with his finger pointing at him, "our quest could come closer to our advantages."
Neo's face became as blank as a block of butter. His eyes then shrunk down towards the size of sunflower seeds, and this left him looking down, trying to hide his expressions. He soon looked back up at the others, with a more nervous twitch in his jaws.
"But what have I got to do with anything?"
"He has a point", Gary responded in the background. "He's shown a sign of innocence ever since receiving the scar for life on his head."
"I may hate to state this to you," said Zephyr with a nervous twitch on his mouth, "but a prophecy from the creature told us that your next visit to Volcano Isle, whichever time we land in, could be your last."
His head shot up straight towards Zephyr's level, whose tail was lowered down to the ground, his nose starting to twitch as sympathetic as if he was at a best friend's funeral. On Neo's face, his looks soon started to change from curiosity straight into deep frustration.
"That can't be true!"
"But he didn't go crazy with the substance of life at the times we visited it... or did he?", Beverley questioned with her hand being brought onto her chin.
Neo gave out a rough shrug from his shoulders, before he started storming his way towards the windows, where he crouched down onto the ground and saw the moonlight start to penetrate the windows with a bright cyan glow across his face. But then, it wasn't long before he turned back to the others, whom all surrounded Zephyr with a lot of questions on their minds.
Brio was one of the first to stand close to him. "Could you find out anything more hideous about that creature?"
"Chyna be unsure," the wombat creature responded, "but Chyna know that creature no stranger to threat of planet."
Upon the sound of her voice they turned in her direction, whom was seen with her foot raised in the air, furiously trying to scratch her back with it. Then, from over her shoulder, a light blur started to show in the horizon. That caused Martha to jump at the sight and squeal over at it.
"Guys! I've found something!"
She ran straight towards the window, with her pigtails starting to droop behind her. Then, the others followed her and surrounded her at the windowsill, where she pointed over towards a shadow - one with a round top, a square-ish body, and a pair of long celery-stick-like legs.
"Is that the creature you're on about?", asked Bev with a giggle.
"Yep, and take a look at those legs", Spike said, pointing at its lower limbs. "Odd ya?"
His focused remained down towards the legs, where his eyes started to lower down with a smirk across his mouth. But it wasn't long until Crash came from behind him and took a grip of his head, raising it higher up slightly. Then, he was seen making his way towards a wreckage within the area.
"Wonder what he wants with the ruins of the city, eh?", Neo responded with a blink.
"I don't know," Spike said as he walked away from the window, "but there's one way to find out - to go in there ourselves."
He twitched his eyes in his direction, before he started to walk his way towards the front door. Some of the others remained standing in silence, while the others soon started to follow him. However, Crunch was one of those that came in front of him and blocked him right at the foot of the door.
"But isn't it a bit late?"
"Look, if Neo dies tomorrow, then I put the blame on you, Crunch!"
"Whoa, don't take it that harshly, ki-"
Before he could say anything else, Spike took a grip of him round his neck, and pushed him down towards the ground with a force that made him stagger and fall backwards out of the room, knocking over a coffee table holding a pair of clogs on it and landing with his head on the ground. Spike started to blush, before Gary emerged into view.
"You heard what the kid said. Might as well make our run."
With that, he took a light walk up towards Crunch, maintained a firm grip around his hands, and pulled him up with a calm expression on his face. Then, they all started to head their way towards the exit in single file, emerging into the almost pitch-black streets ahead of them all.
---
With the creature that Spike gestured at, he was seen making his dash down the streets of the wreckage, before he jumped into a raft at a nearby canal. He started using his hands to pedal it towards the open sea, where an island came into focus. Once there, he jumped right out towards it, with his feet landing with deep rectangle-like footprints in the ground.
"Well, so much for trying to track that kid down here", he spoke with a mutter.
He looked around in all directions, and saw the desert land right ahead of him. To the left was a rocky slope leading up towards a gigantic mountain-like structure in the center. And then, he looked to his right, where he saw patches of half-dead trees drooping down towards the ground.
"Wonder why my heart wanted me to pick to go to this place anyway", he whispered.
He started to walk towards a path from the center of the two structures, down towards a clearing at the foot of the "mountain". He then sat down, with his back leaning against it, and his eyes being brought down to the sparkling waters. A reflection of the moon can be seen within it. But then... the reflection started to glow a bright yellow color. That caused him to look up, and saw the real moon doing the same thing.
"Oh crud!", he exclaimed as he stepped back.
As he shouted that line, something started to spark inside his body. Without knowing, he was lifted high up into the air, chest first, and brought into the moonlight. He was then seen, with a round pink head that can almost be mistaken for the tip of an egg, silver armor round his torso with a red spiral on his chest, purple legs and arms made out of gold. Then, something from the body of the creature started to float out into the open air. It showed itself as a glimmering object, before it was fully brought into the light - a bright yellow stone. It then started to levitate itself higher into the sky, while at the same time, the figure was brought back down onto the ground via both feet.
"Talk about the powers of a stone", he said with awe.
He started to gasp at the sight of it, until a bright power surge started to fill it. Then, within the glow, the stone started to transform into a figure. It spurted wings, and had four limbs and a head. It had rough hair, a long pair of ears, and ragged clothing across it. Yet it remained as a shadow. Down below, the figure gasped at it.
"If you're a God," he said while pointing up towards the creature, "then I unleashed you! Nice to meet you, eh?"
He started to smile over at the figure, whose eyes started to glow with a strong current within the darkness. Then, it started flapping its wings with a slight bit of anger, before it suddenly took off over to the path leading right up to the top of the mountain-like structure. The reflection of the action was shown in the figure's eyes.
"Maybe not quite", he muttered.
It started to hover its way in between the trees, only popping out a few times to strike bolts of lightning down towards the ground, only just missing the figure by a few feet. That caused him to scream at the sight of them before he jumped out of their way and started to chase him himself, with his arms waving with a slight bit of anger within them.
"Hey, come back here!" He edged his way closer to him. "Why are you flying from me like this?"
He made his way up towards the slopes, where he was seen out-running the creature at an incredible speed at his feet. Then, the shadow turned around and started to growl over at the creature. From its hands, a bright yellow spark of energy took a shape within his hands, and he sent it straight towards his opponent, knocking him off the edge.
"OOF!"
That caused him to bounce up into the sky, and started plummeting his way through a bunch of bushes, before he landed at the foot of the slope - being another stretch of sand between him and the sea - and stood back up, looking at him. Back with the shadow, it started to make its way round to another nearby clearing, with its teeth brought together tightly.
Nearby, a wooden boat was seen along the banks of the water, sitting there peacefully. From nearby, four sets of footprints can be seen walking their way towards the slopes. In the light, four figures can be seen - one of Tiko, being the figure in the factories beforehand, and three others - a male younger than him, with green hair, some of which going over his right brown eye, and clothes in the form of a pair of jeans, a white shirt labeled "I Luv Led Zepplin" and a red baseball cap, two girls, with blonde and pink hair respectively, with the first having a pink cap with a spear on top, purple eyes and mainly green clothing, while the second wore a blue tank top, matching eyes and bottle-green trousers - all looking peacefully towards the night sky. But it wasn't until the winged figure came into view from behind a nearby ledge.
"Lio, watch out from ahead!", Tiko shouted as he pointed up at it.
The shout caused him to bring his head further ahead, and see the figure swoop faster and faster towards them. He was then 100 meters away from them and closing in. Within no time, the pair of them ducked towards the ground, with the feet of the figure barely touching them. The sound of a thunderclap was heard from behind them, soon causing them to look behind them, where they saw the blonde girl, standing there, looking like she's spent an evening in an oven.
"Oh my God Hallie," Lio responded with panic. "What's happened to your hair?"
"Let's just say it fried me like a toothpick...!"
With that, she started to quiver and fall down towards the ground, with her hands starting to limp slightly. From behind her, the pink haired girl came towards them, with her shoelaces starting to trail among the ground. With that, Lio immediately gestured over at her, with a finger pointing up into the air as he spoke.
"Deksta, did you see anything?"
"I think I did. It seemed to take a sharp form for a spark - it seemed to look more like... some sort of wolf dog."
This left the others scratching their heads over the remark, before they looked back at the direction of the figure, whom was starting to show itself as a blur within the night sky. Then, before they could look at the figure even further, a shout occurred from right behind them, causing their ears to prick up upon hearing it.
"STOP! I COMMAND YOU!!!" it shouted.
They all quickly turned around, and saw the pink creature in the suit running among the shorelines, with his feet starting to trail among the sand dunes beneath him. Upon the sight of him and his angry-like attitude, Tiko's face started to curve into a smile. He turned back to the others, whom all blinked at different intervals.
"Guys, I think we just found our answer on its origin."
He turned around, facing the creature again, whom was then seen 200 meters apart from him. They formed a line from the waters of the shores to the rock faces on the other side of the path. That left the creature to leer at them, with anger in his eyes.
"Hey, get out of the road! That was my beast I was meant to tame!"
"Speaking of which," Tiko said with a calmer tone, "what exactly is that?"
He pointed back over at the flying "wolf-dog", whom was seen starting to circle its way around the city like a spec in the darkness. Its shadow started to show itself getting smaller in size as time passed, leaving the creature's face to turn with a bright red color, showing that filled with anger. He then turned towards the others, waving his hands in the air.
"Never mind your beeswax mister! It's getting away!!!"
He then started to rush towards them and tackle them head first, trying to push them into the ground, but with failure. This left him sliding down Lio's pants, with his eyes brought down onto some pebbles scattered across the sand. He then looked back up towards the others, with Lio starting to look agitated, with his grip on his hands becoming tighter.
"Save your strength, ya? Can't you just tell me what the bloody Hell's going on around here?"
"Fine, but I'll blame you for it if you don't let me go afterwards", said the creature with a sulk.
That gave him time to stand back up, and take his position sitting down on a large stone. He looked on towards the ocean ahead of him, and as he opened his mouth, ready to speak, a blur appeared in his mind - that of the stone that the winged animal came out from. A cool breeze started to go through his armor at that point.
"I found that gem in my dimension, and I saw it as one of the rarest of beauties - a Thunder Stone. I wanted to use it to gain control of the Seventh Dimension, but... why the creature from it turned its back on me I had no idea."
He sighed as he spoke, with his eyes lowering back down towards the ground, where he saw the oceans starting to splash against the sand. That caused some of the others to look at his lowering face, and it wasn't long until Tiko started approaching him lightly, leaving light footprints within the ground beneath him.
"You aren't the only one expecting results like that. I hope to do something similar with the use of this very island."
"You mean..." His eyes widened with fear. "Volcano Isle?"
He turned back towards the mountain-like structure above him. From there, a light silver stream started to trickle out from above it. It left a trail on the wall, and by the time it reached the ground, the remainder touched the sandy surface at the size of a dewdrop. They looked at it, before they faced each other once again.
"It's still a pleasure to meet you anyway", Tiko responded smiling. "I'm Tiko Cortex."
He drew out his outstretched hand, ready to expect a handshake from him. No sooner than that happened, the creature then looked down towards the drop down towards the ground. He then brought his head towards him, and gave out a light smile upon his own face. He then stood up, with the tip of his head reaching where Tiko's heart should be.
"Just call me N-Trance, the master of Hypnosis."
He brought out a claw-like hand, and took a tight grip of it around Tiko's hands, causing them to cripple slightly underneath them. That caused him to pull his hand away from him, leaving them standing a fair distance between them. This left the creature, being N-Trance, to stroke his head slightly, blinking at Tiko's direction and blushing slightly.
---
Meanwhile, back in the docks of the city itself, the winged animal made its soar down towards the boats, and zoomed past them in an instant flash, causing the sails to flap hard against the wind, some of which ending up with holes in it afterwards. It then brought itself into a loop-the-loop, before it started to fly slightly away from the urban scene.
"What is this strange world?"
He turned back in the direction of the city, with the moonlight starting to shine from right behind him. He then started to hover close towards the tallest building in the rebuilt-segment, looking over at them with anger starting to flow into his face. He felt the cold and hard substances surrounding them, which felt bitter to his tough, lowering his eyebrows even more.
"Why are all these strange structures here? This is so unlike the Yevron law!"
With a growl, he started to hover his way above them, until... his eyes were brought towards another building. He turned around and hovered lower, with his nose meeting another. He then tried to fly away from there, getting much lower, but saw another building. The cycle continued, with his face showing more stress than beforehand.
"Tell me that I'm not trapped!!!"
He soon remained still, with his wings flapping lighter than before, and he was seen hovering down towards the ground. The touch of his feet onto the pavement caused him to look down at the ground with disgust, before he started hovering high again, along the streets, and towards a sharp right turn into a heavily darkened back alley.
At the other side, the groups were seen making their way inside it. Crash stood ahead of the group, looking around the tall buildings that took form on both sides of the path, as well as a set of trash cans, each of them either standing upright or toppled over with their contents falling out. His focus remained there, until... a voice came from behind him.
"Duck Crash, DUCK!!!" Crunch shouted with a strain in his voice.
At the sound of his voice, his head was lifted up into the sky. Once there, he saw the blur of the shadowy figure's hair a bit lower from his view. That caused the creature to look down - he was only twenty meters away from him. Crash tried to jump out of the way... but he was shunted into a pile of trashcans, with the creature bringing its way further into the other side of the shadows. At the sight of it, Crunch started to growl and put his fists together.
"YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!!! You almost killed him, and most importantly you'd best WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING NEXT TI-"
As he spoke, he looked straight towards the creature, but... its eyes were seen quivering with fear. It started to back away, and it formed a barricade for itself by placing wooden blocks around it. It brought its head underneath, and all that can be seen is its eyes brought lower down and a shadowed tail waving about under there.
"Why are you looking at me with those puppy eyes?" Crunch questioned with his eyes soon facing the same expressions.
The cry of its voice caused it to start shaking upon its movements of its tail. This left them in silence for a few moments, looking at the creature, whom still refused to make his way out from there. Then, from the pack, Neo took a step forward and brought his hand out towards him.
"Calm down little fella', there's nothing to be afraid of!"
No sooner than he said that, the creature started to growl, and brought out its jaws towards him in an attempt to bite his fingers. But he brought them back just in time. His muzzle was shown with gray fur, with a patch of orange on the tip of it. It then brought its head back inside the darkness.
"So much for that", said Neo with a surprised look.
It wasn't long until he looked back down at his fingers, wondering what the case would have been like if his fingers really WERE bitten off. Then, he started advancing closer to it, with the others making lighter steps from behind him. The creature was shaking more frightened than ever.
"Leave me alone, all of you! I believe that all of you have defined Yevron's laws!"
"Yevron's laws...?", muttered Neo in the background.
"I hate to see a day when you go against the gods like that", panicked the creature. "With that, what are us wolarcoots meant to do?"
After the creature spoke his words, Neo looked down towards the ground, with a face showing confusion upon its words. He brought his hand to the back of his head, and started blinking over at his direction. But from behind him, Crash, whom managed to stand up from the push from earlier, looked on at him with a light blink.
"A wolarcoot?"
"I've seen some of those creatures back in our time", Spike exclaimed excitedly.
"You do?" Neo walked closer to him. "What are they like?"
"I dunno, they're all different. Some of the god-like ones either vanished or became deadly spirits, and some of the others have taken more of a human form, like you guys."
The thoughts of them started to come across their minds. But in Neo's especially, those showed the thoughts of what the creatures may have been like in the time travelers' time. His thoughts showed some of which as bloodthirsty creatures willing to take others' souls, and the others flying around, with a demon-like status on their bodies, even if they're still alive and well. His face turned white.
"Well, no matter what, I can sense that this one isn't going to be like that. Come out, please."
"I'm not coming out", the wolarcoot shouted with fear. "I've had enough bother with that pink egg on the island, and I don't want it again!"
After he said that line, Gary soon broke into a round of uncontrollable laughter, clutching his stomach and rolling across the ground like a pig. That caused some of the others to look at him, with their eyes leering down at him and his somewhat idiotic movements.
"A PINK EGG!!!" Gary blurted from his mouth. "That has gotta be the funniest thing I heard all day!"
He continued to laugh for a further few seconds, and that was until he finally realized that no one was laughing with him. With that in mind, he looked back at the others, whom were all seen looking at him with sympathetic looks upon their faces.
"Why aren't you laughing with me?"
They didn't respond to him. Instead, they were looking over at the creature, whom was seen shaking within his barricade. Then, with no frustration, his tail dropped down to the ground, and his eyes were sealed shut. In no time, the group pulled him out, and saw his fainted body in the dim moonlight.
-end of part 2-