Chapter 8 - The Final Confrontation
Crash, Coco and Aku Aku walked down the long corridor of the castle, which surprisingly was now well lit, with confidence. As they walked, Crash viewed saw that there were words on the doors of the rooms they passed, there were such signs as "CRYOGENICS DEPARTMENT" and "FAILED EXPERIMENTS". When Crash saw this, he thought about how lucky he was, after all, he was one of Cortex's supposed failed experiments, and he could well have wound up in that room, but no, he was here, out for revenge.
"Crash wait, look!" Coco called out.
Crash turned to see Coco and Aku Aku facing a door. He walked over and looked at the sign on the door, the words read "RESTORATION CHAMBER". Crash's face lit up, he knew exactly what this meant.
"Coco, Aku Aku, run back and get Crunch, I don't care how you get him here, just do it and do it fast, we can revive Crunch this way."
"What about you, will you be ok?" Coco questioned.
"Yes, I'll be fine, I really am ready for anything this time."
"Good luck Crash," Aku Aku said, "I know you can do it.
Coco gave Crash one last hug and rushed with Aku Aku down the corridor to get Crunch ack in the jungle, while Crash continued on further into the castle. After more minutes of mindless wandering, he found himself in front of a large red door with the sign "TEST SUBJECTS, AUTHORISED PEOPLE ONLY," above it. Crash knew that this was where he would find Cortex, no doubt torturing another defenceless jungle creature and turning it into one of his minions. Slowly, he opened the door and stepped in.
He was now standing in front of a long, stone spiral staircase which was lit by medieval torches, it seemed Cortex liked to mix the past and the future into his architecture. Slowly and surely, Crash made his way down the stairs. As he made his way down, he could make out a bright green light coming from the end of the stairway, as he stepped into the room he found himself in the area filled with tubes again, but, fortunately, he wasn't in one of them this time.
"CORTEX, WHERE ARE YOU, COME OUT AND FIGHT?!" Crash shouted.
His voice echoed across the room, but there was no response. He looked around at all the creatures in the tubes, they were all sad, lonely and were desperate to be freed, Crash knew he had to rescue them before anything else. He noticed a large lever on the wall, that must be what releases them. Crash walked over and pulled the lever, but instead of all the animals being released, an opening emerged at the other end of the lab. Crash's mouth dropped open as from the darkness stepped a colossal robot, towering above everything in the room, it's metal glistening, the limbs were massive and powerful, and the face was instantly recognisable, Cortex had merged himself and turned HIMSELF into a machine bent on destruction.
"CRASH, I WILL DESTROY YOU!" Cortex bellowed out and swung a mighty fist towards Crash's direction.
Crash rolled out of the way at the last second and the fist connected with one of the supporting iron pillars of the room, which shattered on impact. The lab gave an unerring groan and the ceiling began to crumble.
"YOU CANNOT DEFEAT ME CRASH, I AM INDESTRUCTABLE!" Cortex let out a mighty laugh, which shook the very wallk of the lab, which began to crumble even more.
Debris was falling all around Crash, who had to constantly duck and weave out of the way to avoid being killed, he knew that soon, the whole place will collapse, he had to get out of there. Crash ran towards the spiral staircase and sprinted up them, he felt guilty, knowing that there was nothing to do to save the helpless animals now, and that they would perish in the rubble. But nevertheless, Crash continued to run. He looked back and Cortex was following him, destroying the walls of the stairway in the process.
Crash found himself in the long corridor again and continued to run, Cortex was right behind him.
"PREPARE TO DIE CRASH!" Cortex bellowed and released a missile, which barely missed Crash and impacted on the nearby wall.
"I can't take much more of this," Crash thought to himself, "this has to end now!"
Crash then remembered something and ducked behind an alcove to his right.
"Yes, just as I thought," Crash saw a button with the words "ELECTRIC GRID written above. Crash wasted no more time and hit the button.
Just as he thought, the iron wall crashed down behind Cortex.
"NO, NOT THIS WAY, IT CAN'T END LIKE THIS!"
Cortex dived towards Crash, but he was too quick and slid under the second iron wall, seconds before it slammed behind him, Cortex was now trapped, and soon to be destroyed.
"NOOOOOO!" Crash heard Cortex cry out.
There was the faint humming sound of electricity and then an almighty explosion, Crash didn't look behind him, but just ran for all he was worth.
"Crash!"
Coco, Aku Aku and the now revived Crunch were just ahead of him, although he was happy to see them all, he couldn't waste any more time.
"RUN!" Crash instructed.
The other three didn't question Crash's actions and sprinted to the gate. Only seconds after all four made it out of the castle, the entire structure collapsed in a flurry of explosions and flying stone. Crash, bloody and bruised, breathed out heavily and fell onto the floor. It was over, Cortex was no more.
"You did it Crash, you did it!" Coco cheered
"I knew you could do it Crash," Aku Aku complimented.
"Man that was a close call for me," Crunch said, "the last thing I remembered was seeing a huge foot coming down on my face, then when I woke up I was in the restoration chamber of the castle. I don't know how you did it Crash, but I am still alive, and I am very grateful that."
"I am just glad it's finally over," Crash sighed, "come on, let's go home."
Crunch helped Crash back up to his feet and the group of friends made their way back home, glad that the nightmare of doctor Neo Cortex was over.
However, back at the ruins of Cortex Castle, where the remnants of Cortex lay, a huge metal hand began twitching, and a soft but evil chuckle could be heard.
THE END????