AUTHOR NOTES-

Third part for this fic is past approaching, and it's here that the basic structures for the Spy portion of the rebellion are brought into their full light. It's here that Kazaa is introduced to the reader, as well as a surprise granted towards the Black Seagull. We also dive into one of the driving forces behind the invasion for Squadron Gemini, and one that could be worth of a shock if not careful.

Going through the response from last time, thanks for your commentary even if you just read and didn't leave any commentary.

Crashfan, to answer your concern over Crunch's dress uniform, that can be shown as a light military joke. If anyone here has played Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal, you'll know that the main leader of the Galactic Rangers referred to the other troops as "ladies", which I felt was a common missionary term. And given that Kyle was commanding Coco and Crunch together, nature just had to run its course. Heh.

Back to the current part. I can't really say much, but enjoy this as much as I did writing the past two. :)

Peace out,

Rexy-


The skies around N. Sanity Island were shown to be gradually getting darker as time managed to advance. Dark black clouds started to cover the crimson skies, and the waters among the ocean line were struggling to get unstable.

The wind currents were getting stronger with every passing second, causing some of the leaves fallen from the trees to eventually pick up from their own individual positions. Some of which skimmed across the ground, while others were sent straight into the sky.

The dust upon the path was seen gradually causing a light sandstorm upon the ground, in turn revealing a lot of stone upon the ground surface. There, that in effect revealed a path filled with cobbled stones all around.

Further up the path, Crunch was seen leading Crash, Cortex and Nina towards the bottom of the cliff sides that were mainly placed towards the center of the island. Their expressions were shown to be varied, from Nina's relaxed looks, to Crash's determination, all the way through to Cortex's cowardice.

And then, Crunch brought out both hands, causing everyone to end up making a stop right at the foot of the cliffs. They looked up, where the general scenes around them were shown to be more haunting than ever.

"There's the target stronghold", the brown bandicoot smiled. "It'll be a long climb to get to the gates, but it'll all be worth it."

Crunch pointed straight up at the top of the cliff, where a strong metallic structure was seen sitting right at the top of the tallest mountain – a mountain so tall it ended up touching the clouds with its colossal structures.

The general familiarization of the scene left Cortex's eyes to instantly widen at the sight of them, before a face filled with deep sorrow suddenly started to show upon his own eyes. That soon caught the attention of Crunch from nearby.

"Are you guys okay?"

He showed a face filled with concern at them all, thinking that they might have faced a wrong turn somewhere. Within the group, Cortex ended up showing a face filled with rage to match with his pain. His hands were clutched tightly, and his teeth were seen gritting tighter than before.

"What have they done to my castle here?"

"Wait a minute..." Crunch paused while looking closer towards Cortex. "You're telling me Castle Cortex has been replaced? At this moment in time?"

"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out!"

He ended up climbing up onto Crunch's shoulders, and thus forcing his head to end up looking in his direction. There, the brown bandicoot's expression showed a face filled with shock upon him, before he took him off and placed him back on the ground.

"Relax, Uncle", smiled Nina from the background. "I'm sure there's a way that we can be able to reclaim your pride on who you are. We'll be sure to rebuild the island back up again."

Crash, however, responded with a shrug. "The problem is... it may take a bit longer than we expect."

Crash gave out a light sigh before looking straight back up towards the stronghold, where which had its shadow cast straight over them, obscuring them within the darker shades of the island's environment.

A thunderclap occurred right above them, allowing it to be able to ring through their own ears over time. This has left for a monstrous scene to start to evoke around their listening points, causing them to end up joining hands (or arms in Nina's case) as they approached the wall.

And there, they knew that they would be up for tough excursion up towards the stronghold.


A rain storm was seen crashing down upon the island's surface, causing several ripples to show upon the waters around it. The plants were seen getting damper, and various aspects of mud were seen developing upon the ground.

Some of the rain even made its way down through vertical streams along the cliff sides. There, the watery surfaces ended up crashing further down towards the planet's surface, landing with harsh splashes within the ground.

Along the cliff sides, Crunch was seen leading the group through climbing up a wall to be able to reach the cliff sides, with most of the others behind him. He then ended up pulling himself onto a nearby ledge, showing a smile filled with relief as he did so.

"Just a few more ledges to climb. We're almost there!"

He then ended up making his way towards the next ledge, leaving Nina to end up coming onto the ledge next. She smiled as she managed to settle firmly onto both feet… only to hear a crack from down below.

"Oh no, not again!" shouted Cortex's voice from a lower altitude.

She quickly turned around. "I've got you!"

She looked down below and saw Cortex holding onto a smaller ledge, which was starting to crumble into pieces. And then, it broke, leaving Nina to use the bear traps on her hands to reach for Cortex. And in natural fashion, the grip around his hands was at a painful gripping state.

"AIEEE!"

"Relax", said Crash from lower down the cliff. "I've managed to get you covered!"

From the other side, Crash managed to take a grip upon his other hand, leaving him and Nina to end up bringing him up together. Being several feet above the ground, they knew that they would be unable to retreat from their position.

Several minutes later, they all managed to reach the top of the cliff, thus reuniting with Crunch. There, the structures of the war factory were seen in their full glory, with menacing silver and blue structures all around them as well as some copper chimneys upon the top.

"Well, here we are - the entrance to the opposition's stronghold", Crunch winked. "Our spies are located in a quiet sector towards the West Wing. You'll need this to get in there."

Crunch turned towards Crash, and brought his hands into his pockets as he managed to do so. There, he pulled out a small whistle-shaped object, which in itself was colored a lemon yellow and had a plastic coat all around it.

"A kazoo?" Crash asked with a confused tone.

"It's the only sound that will give us authority inside that part of the building" sighed Crunch.

Crunch shrugged before he ended up making his way straight towards the main doors of the building. There, he used his hands to thrust the entrance straight open, leaving him to step inside first.

Crash's eyes remained fixed upon the kazoo. "Please don't tell me this is some kind of joke..."

"If that's what he's intending, then that's what he's intending", Nina frowned upsettingly. "Sorry Crash."

Nina gave off a light shrug, before the remainder of the group ended up making their way within the building themselves. The eerie lights from outside soon managed to fade into nothing more than darkness all around them.

Within the deeper reaches of the corridor, Crash looked straight down at the kazoo. He wondered what the purpose of the object was when needed, and had an irrational eye twitch as he placed it within his own pocket.

As they managed to turn various corners around the corridor, the lights were gradually coming back into focus, thus presenting some further warmth around them. However, much of it was shown to be the equivalent to red mist.


The eerie lighting continued as the team managed to make their journey further and further into the building. Strobe lights were seen flicking among the control panels around them every now and again, to help provide some ease on their direction.

They soon managed to reach a nearby wall that was located towards the left hand side – this one in particular was seen to be covered in ruined pipes and cobwebs, something that would have shown some aspects of unfinished construction around it.

Crunch brought his attention towards the left, and then to the right. There, he saw no signs of any Squadron Gemini troops around them, leaving him to show a relieved smile right upon his face.

"Looks like the coast is clear. It's time to make our move!"

Crash gave out a light nod, before emerging back within his pockets and pulling out the kazoo. He looked down at the structure again, which in turn was still shown to be a bit irrational for his given purpose.

And then he placed the reed within his mouth, thus playing the first few notes of the general Crash theme tune upon them. The sound itself was shown to be too much for Nina, whom in turn tightly closed her eyes at the textures of it.

And right there, the rubble started to crumble down towards the ground, revealing a door. It then opened up on its own, leaving the group to make their way inside the building for itself – a small, isolated basement-type building with nothing but pipes and computer screens making any real significance around it.

"Welcome to our hidden West Wing", Crunch spoke in a warm tone.

"Crunch, I have a question", said Crash with a curious voice. "What exactly do your spies do here?"

"Simple - they provide their own elements of disguise, and grant as much information as they can towards our base. Our boss, the Black Seagull is rumored to be around these parts too."

He then smiled as he looked towards the main corridor from his position. The thoughts relating to the seagull have gestured that that figure itself has managed to work well in providing a firm boost to the rebellion… which in turn left Nina to raise a hand in the air with a curious gesture.

"Now that you mention it, do you know where the Seagull came from?" Nina asked Crunch.

"Not a clue - something that can only be kept within the mind of our beloved commander. I can admit that this warrior has got some good reflex skills to bring us this far."

He ended up giving off a confident look as he ended up sitting on top of a metallic crate on the far corner. He ended up bringing his hands behind his head, showing a relaxed gesture all around him, only to see Cortex emerge with another question.

"And what about the other spy? Do you know how she got pulled into this mess?"

"Nothing much aside from that she came to this island from the depths of the sea", Crunch blinked.

Crash's face suddenly showed interest. "Did you say 'she'?"

"Romantic relationships are not on her agenda right now", the brown bandicoot scowled.

Crunch leered on at Crash from his position, knowing about the true traits behind the spy himself. But little did he know that near him, another shadow was seen making its way in – a cat-like shadow. A hand was placed upon his shoulder, leaving him to jump straight back onto both feet.

"Are you saying that you're refusing to make me fall in love?" said a warm female voice.

Crunch's eyes widened. "Kazaa?"

He ended up looking towards the shadow, which in turn brought itself into the light – a female figure that mainly resembled a cat. She had golden fur, strong metallic copper shoes all around her, a short green skirt, an orange sleeveless shirt, a golden necklace around her head, and long blue hair that was mainly covered by an orange headscarf.

Her deep blue eyes were soon locked onto Crunch's viewpoint, and her gray and silver striped fish-like tail was seen twitching side to side with deep curiosity around her. There, the brown bandicoot gave off a light nervous smile at her.

"Ah, I never saw you emerge from behind! What a coincidence!"

She ended up bringing her eyes towards Crash and the others. "Hm, I see you managed to bring in some worthy company too?"

She looked on at Crash, Cortex and Nina one by one. And within the pack, she ended up with a light expression of shock upon seeing Crash in the fur. There, she ended up pointing on at him with her paw-like hands.

"Wait a minute, that's that worthy Crash Bandicoot guy you've been telling us all about", she smiled pleasantly. "Interesting. Wonder how he managed to escape his prison cell alive?"

Cortex instantly took a step forward. "That was us. Nina and I will be bound to show some gratitude for what we have managed to achieve."

Kazaa looked on at Cortex and Nina, curious over what happened. She knew for a fact that the former wanted to take over the world through many different occasions, and she didn't even know of his niece before.

But given the dangers behind the current situation, she ended up giving off a light smile, allowing the past to slide for a while. There, she walked around the room, her tail continuing to twitch as time continued on.

"You know, even though you've done enough for the time being" she casually looked on at the others, "I feel you could have been given some further upbeat statuses to be able to last your time against the fight. Given your statuses, I doubt you'll be able to last long in the group."

Crash's eyes were brought into a light leer. "We just want to eliminate the opposition, without a doubt."

"You're asking for it?"

Kazaa gave off a curious smile as she turned straight back towards Crash. There, he ended up showing a confident expression back at her, leaving her to show a curious twitch around her before heading her way into the middle of the room.

She brought a careful glance towards Crunch within the corner, whom in turn ended up making his way towards the others with an expressionless look all around him. Once that happened, she opened her mouth to speak.

"If that's the case, I'll lead you in onto some crucial key points to cover for the team. Crunch, you can take Crash with you down to the basement to take a closer analysis at the heart of the enemy operation. Cortex and Nina, I believe the Black Seagull will give you a hand on providing some additional energy towards your grasp. That way, we'll be sure to survive the war for sure."

"Kazaa", Cortex started to speak, "do you have any idea where these opponents came from?"

"Ask the Seagull yourself, because she seemed to be the only person that witnessed it."

She gave off a light scowl in his direction as she spoke, leaving Cortex to show a light amount of fear upon his own eyes. That left Nina to end up gesturing with a light nod filled with reassurance.

Then, Kazaa soon ended up opening the door once more, to reveal the way back outside. There, they were both brought straight back out into the corridors that linked the individual rooms of the stronghold together.

"Bird-like monsters, a twisted N. Sanity Island and now this?" Cortex started to panic. "If there's something I did wrong when out in the tenth dimension last year-"

"I doubt it, Uncle", Nina smiled. "I assure you that given what we're facing up against, there's nothing to worry about."

She ended up grasping his neck with her elbow, at a rather gentle pace around her. That left Cortex to look straight back at her, with his own expression continuing to show his own feelings of anxiety.

Could Nina be right, he thought. It could have been true that he ended up facing much worse, but given the rather unfriendly situation brought all around the island at that moment in time... it's shown that almost anything could go.

Those thoughts were fixed further as they ended up making their way further up the darkened red-mist-filled corridors, waiting to see what the so-called Black Seagull figure had in mind for them.


The darkened corridors that were brought ahead of Cortex and Nina gradually started to show more light upon the walls. And then, they managed to end up with a beautiful gold tint showing upon the vertical structures.

It wasn't long until they reached a mission control type room that was similar to Kyle's headquarters, except that this room was shown to be much cleaner and emptier. Their expressions showed curiosity as they went further around the room.

And it wasn't long until they saw a cubicle door covered in obscure glass right at the left hand side of the room, where a black shadow was seen typing out on a few panels near its grasp. Within the silence, Cortex managed to step forward to speak.

"Hello? Kazaa sent me to search for a 'Black Seagull'?"

"Yeah, that's me", the figure responded in a faint-pitched motherly tone.

Cortex's eyes widened. "Wait a minute, you're a she?"

Cortex instantly gasped on at the Seagull's feminine structure – short hair gracing upon her shoulders, some strong womanly features given the legs and the sleek arms, and the graceful nature upon her own casual movements. During his examination upon her body, Nina ended up bringing out one of her hands and slapping him – harshly – upon the head.

"Nina!" he exclaimed in pain.

"Forget about my martial status, soldier", the Seagull responded. "Are you asking for a way to go towards the opponent?"

"I'm sure I am", he smiled back. "But... where did you come from anyway?"

"Mind your own business! This is a rebellion I'm trying to run here, not a dating agency!"

Cortex started to blush. He then turned towards Nina, whom could just look back with an agitated expression. But time soon passed, leaving them both to end up making a step closer towards the cubicle itself.

"You know, I feel you'll do well enough on the front lines, skipper", she giggled to herself.

Cortex looked down at his own two hands, curious over her words. "But I can't attack with this feeble body, and knowing how we encountered the enemy's leader a few hours ago, even Nina has had a few problems of her own."

"Your daughter, I presume?"

"She's my NIECE!"

"Yeah, whatever", she said sarcastically. "Listen, I'll pass you a weapon that was dropped from one of our spies up on Meteor Mountain sometime last week."

She then picked up a weapon from within her cubicle, and placed it within a shaft on her right wall. She then closed it, leaving it to slide its way to another hatch towards the walls near Cortex, where he ended up opening it in an instant.

"Promise me you'll do some good with this thing when sending it towards the Gemini leader", she said in a positive tone. "He has an office ahead of here. Can't miss it."

Right in front of him, he ended up seeing towards a genuine flamethrower, complete with an energy tank that seems to be bigger than his body. He ended up gasping at the size of the structure, feeling uncertain over how to carry the weight.

Within the background, Nina ended up catching her eyes towards a nearby pushcart made out of metal, which she ended up pushing towards Cortex in an instant. They then placed the tank onto there, and that left him to jump onto the front of the cart itself, using one leg to end up pushing himself further ahead.

But the thought behind the Seagull herself was brought through his head. The genuine structure of her and her mysterious true identity left him showing some curiosity over what she faced to get onto the island in the first place. Alas, those thoughts were pushed away as he and Nina started to approach what was presumed to be the whereabouts of the leader of Squadron Gemini.


In another part of the fortress, several guards were seen making their march up and down the scene, leaving behind their vicious footsteps all around them. Silence was brought upon their mouths, leaving them with their minds in deep thought as they went around the scene.

Above them, a set of shafts were seen hanging above them, and some of which were shown to be creaking in their own right. That left some of which to look up and analyze them with their own eyes.

For two seconds, the creaking wasn't set. That in turn left them to end up going back to their patrolling business. Underneath the vent was a bar-based opening, where Crash and Crunch were seen on their hands and knees, going within the narrow metallic spaces.

"I hate these underground missions", Crunch sighed. "Kazaa always gives me the most impossible vents to try and crawl through."

"Shut up Crunch", growled Crash. "You could distract the guards beneath us!"

There, Crash quickly took a tight grip around Crunch's hand, leaving them both to continue further up the ventilation shaft. That in turn brought them out of sight from the opening below them, leaving them to continue making their way further up front.

Eventually, they came towards the end of the vent – a rounded spherical cubicle that was about an inch smaller than Crash – perfect room for them to sit down and see through a broken fan, just to see into the room in front of them – one filled with state-of-the-art machinery and various other guards.

"So I take this must be the heart of the operation huh?" Crash ended up questioning Crunch.

He responded back with a nod. "I'm going in with the recon photos!"

Crunch placed his hands within his pockets, and ended up bringing out a small black box-shaped device with a red strobe light on the top of it, as well as a microscopic lens at the front and a cylinder shaped button at the top – a spy camera.

"Whoa, where did you get that thing?" Crash asked with surprise.

"Kyle provided it with me when I first signed up for the rebellion. Handy thing, huh?"

He smiled at the small device, which seemed to be no bugger than his thumb in size. And then he ended up leaning up close towards the barred entrance, and started taking photographs of the many different machines and guards all around the area.

While that happened, Crash ended up looking on at the situation via climbing onto Crunch's back and seeing a more escalated view of the whole scene. There, he ended up taking note of a machine right in the center of the room – a warp-like device with various purple light particles zooming around it.

"Now I've never seen that machine before", Crunch smiled with a serious tone. "Any idea where it came from Crash?"

His eyes just widened at its basic structures. "It looks almost just like Dr. Cortex's Psychotron..."

Crash thought back towards the basic structures of the machine, which familiarized him with the same crystal powered machine that was used to take him to the 10th Dimension, for a final assault towards the Evil Twins at that time a year ago.

But what would a machine like that be doing here, he kept on thinking to himself. There had to be a reason why a warp-type machine had to be applied within the whole operation, but how? Those thoughts were soon erased when he saw two shadows hiding within the light matter.

"Wait, I see something!"

He squinted his eyes and tried to look closer towards the shadows, but to no avail. One of them showed itself in the light, as the leader of the guard ambush that he faced prior to meeting up with Kyle. The other shadow, one much shorter than him, was obscured entirely by darkness.

"The island's twisted formation is complete", said the smaller figure in his usual faint pitched voice. "I feel we should be able to proceed towards the rest of this continent over the next week or so."

"But what about the rebellion that have been sweeping around us?" the bigger creature shouted back. "You know what happened to me this morning, boss!"

"You can put that behind you. Even here their army is too feeble to be able to surround us and attack us just like that!"

It brought out one of its rounded hands and ended up patting the larger creature on the arm. That left him to growl as he made his way straight towards a nearby door, with his crossbred furry/feathered features being shown to Crunch's full exposure.

There, he pressed the button on the camera, thus capturing the figure's full exposure. After the figure left through the front door, both bandicoots ended up showing their own curious expressions upon one another, thinking on about its exact appearance.

"What kind of creature do you suppose is that thing?" Crash asked Crunch.

"A bandibird?" Crunch blinked. "No, wait..." He thought harder. "A birdicoot? Looks interesting to me, I'm sure."

Crash's ears twitched towards his partner's direction. "Maybe that's something we should point out towards Kyle when we next see him. For now, we should get those photos printed as soon as we can."

Crunch gave out a nod of agreement, before he placed the spy camera back within his pocket and made his way back towards the vent that he crawled through to begin with. The tight struggle within the confined spaces was then to show once more.

Then, Crash ended up making his crawl within the vents alongside his partner, trying his best to push him as far as he can go to help emerge straight out from the cramp metallic spaces surrounding them.

But no matter how much noise they seemed to make from the crawling, the rest of the guards were that focused upon the new Psychotron's operation that they didn't at all notice the bandicoots' escape.


Back within Kyle's headquarters, the remaining rebellion members were seen looking into a more relaxed view of the entire situation. Yet their own tasks seemed to be pretty split among themselves.

At one corner of the room, Coco was seen looking onto the radars and looking through some hacked security cameras, monitoring the viewpoint from where she was. Polar and Pura were seen on either side of her, leaning on her for comfort.

There, she ended up seeing Crash and Crunch making their way out of the building, with the recon photos at hand, and at the sight of them, she ended up smiling with success straight on at them.

Kyle, however, ended up looking on at a different screen altogether; this one was showing Cortex and Nina coming closer towards the Gemini leader's office. He then ended up with a face filled with concern, as if he was worried that neither of the two would get out alive.

He looked behind him and saw the rest of the scientist's minions standing right behind him. There, they ended up showing their own reassuring expressions, giving the pelican the feeling that Cortex has been through worse trials.

That only just left him to end up sitting on a nearby reclining chair and look on at the ceiling from his position. Various thoughts went through his head – what would the case be like if he never brought Cortex into the rebellion, at all? And how would have Crash survived the jail terms himself?

As far as he knew, those questions would never be answered.

end of part 3-