Experiment Bandicoot
Chapter 16:
Journey
Year X, Day X
When the airship crashed and seemingly unknown days needed to fix it, a few handfuls of us decide to go and find the portal. We were also treated in the ship's clinic from the injuries we received from those beastly dragon-like creatures. Some injuries more serious then others, although I doubt any one of us would die. I was merely getting an ace bandage wrapped around my head while I had an iced bag on my knee when Brio came in.
"Yes?"
"N-N-N-Nina wishes to see you." Brio pointed to one of the doors leading to a different room in the clinic. Walking with a bruised knee which caused me to stagger a bit, I manage to reach the door and enter where Nina's back was turned towards me.
"Nina, are you okay?" I asked.
"I'm fine." She softly muttered, her head a little low. Her voice showed a sign of sadness.
"What's wrong?"
"When we were fighting, my hands…they were…hurt." Nina spoke, "Really hurt…I didn't wanted to tell you on the deck."
"What's wrong with your hands?"
Nina slowly turned to face me and revealed her hands. For a minute, I thought her gloves were ripped and torn so her being upset was due to her ripped gloves. Before I could usher her that losing her gloves are nothing of importance at that point, I then notice those black gloves weren't gloves at all…they were her hands.
"Oh. My God." I could barely contain myself. Her hands were scorched!
"My hands hurt so bad, but I never knew it was worse when I took my gloves off in the clinic." Nina shuddered, "Look at them! What do I do?"
"Nina…" I placed a hand on her shoulder while she continued to shudder, "We'll…we'll think of someway to fix this…in the meantime, you can cry if you want."
"I don't want to cry." Nina came off a bit stronger, "I want you to fix it."
"I will, but I need to think about how-"
"No, I want my hands to be better then regular normal, human hands." Nina interrupted. I was intrigued as well as curious.
"I saw Mr. Gin, half his face is metal." Nina started, then a brief silence fell before she eyed me in a serious, yet hopeful manner, "……..Uncle Cortex…I want my hands to be metal…like N. Gin."
…………………
Year 18, Day 155
"So…we just keep following the crystal?" Tobias asked.
"Yea, I suppose so." I stared at the little trinket worn around my neck, "I assume it'll keep us heading north."
"It's the North Pole, so besides obviously dressin' up warm we gotta pack the most important things on our journey." Tawna came in with full leadership voice like she was in a military meeting, "That means first aids, blankets, flashlights, matches to start fire, lots of-"
"Matches!" I cried, "Where the hell would we light a fire with matches? There's no trees anywhere!"
"Crash, it's called "being prepared." Coco lectured, "Simple things like matches can help a lot in dangerous situations."
"Alright, alright!" I gasped, "Stop ganging up on me!"
"I'm not ganging up on you." Coco gasped, "I'm just saying to be-"
"Yak Yak Yak. Blah Blah Blah. Don't you ever shut up?"
"You shut up!"
"Oh, for the love of-"
"I don't have to do what you tell me all the time, Crash!"
"Well, I'm older then you in the house we live in, so therefore-"
"I'm an only child, but this is normal sibling stuff, right?" Tobias asked.
"Yea." Tawna nodded.
"And when they do they ever stop arguing?"
"When they're not together."
"And that is?"
"Practically never."
Year 18, Day 157
"Okay, we head north." I ordered. Coco, Tobias, and Tawna was to follow me. Crunch chose to stay behind and guard the ship incase more of those demonic creatures attack. Cortex took Nina and Tropy who, to no one's surprise, vanished out of thin air the moment he was announced he was to come.
"He'll swing by." Cortex shrugged. He refused to take anyone else, saying how incompetent all of them were, except for N. Gin whom he gave his respect for not going (he and Brio had to stay and repair the ship).
We were all set to leave, garbed in our warm outfits (Tawna, Tobias, and I had a very snowboard appeal look, Coco had on normal standard overcoat, gloves, snow boots, and her "cute snow hat"…right while Cortex was bundled in what looked like a green trench coat with a white scarf, snow boots, and earmuffs, just waiting for Nina who was gathering some last minute things. When she came out (unsurprisingly dressed in black snow gear), we all gasped, except Cortex.
"Pretty cool, huh?" Nina grinned, showing off her hands. Both were bionic and metal.
"Your hands are metal." Crunch gasped, "Funky!"
"Yea…I ask Uncle Cortex to give me new hands…to replace my ugly and painful old ones." Nina smiled, "Now, when I punch, I won't feel huge pain." She demonstrated as she punched the air, but what shocked us even more was the fact that her hand was extending! After extending as much as she could, her hand returned to the rest of her body.
"It's like my own personal grappling hook!" Nina spoke, "I even got a tattooed "n" since paint just like Uncle Cortex, just lower cased."
"Why did you do that to your hands?" Tawna gasped, "Your normal hands couldn't have been that bad."
"Hey, you wanna judge for yourself?" Nina scoffed, "My real hands are kept in a jar. I'm gonna place it in my room once we get back to Castle Cortex." Brief silence as we sunk in those words Nina just spoke.
"I think we better just move on with the mission." I gulped, a bit disturbed, "We're heading north on foot. The rest of you all stay and watch over incase those creatures come back."
"Good luck, you guys." Crunch waved. The rest followed his example and waved as we left the airship.
"AND DON'T SCREW UP THE SHIP!" Cortex shouted, cupping his mouth.
"AwWw, whAt Do YoU tAKe uS FOr, iDIots?" Komodo Moe's giant, yet surly voice cried out.
"Exactly." The old scientist muttered under his breath.
……………………
The snow was still knee deep and with no snow shoes, we had to walk awkwardly through it. The sun was just rising as we walked, so deep colors of blue, orange, violet, yellow, and pink filled the sky. Beautiful sight. One of those sights you'd wanted to see if you were meditating while listening to whale music. Everyone of us walked without saying much. Cortex constantly stared back to see if the airship was still standing, even when we traveled far and it was no longer in view. He was waiting till he could hear a loud explosion so that he could run back and scold his henchmen for destroying his "precious". Coco was giggling or blushing whenever Tobias talked of a subject. Then she would sneak in a kiss with him while I eyed them like a hawk every 2 minutes. Tawna dropped in every once in a while to Coco. Coco then invited Nina to the conversation who after Cortex saved her life, became much more talkative and friendly. The three girls chatted, screaming with laughter or giggling like school girls. It's like walking next to a bunch of slumber party crazed girls who's just finished watching Josie and the Pussycats. I was most surprised at Nina and how much she seem to act more ditz then goth. When Cortex wasn't too busy staring back at the direction of where the ship is, he instead stared at Nina and gave of the warmest smile he could ever produce.
"The crystal is getting brighter." I muttered. The sun was fully up and the sky was a cloudless light blue. Slight wind picked up, nothing much to annoy us. I kept eyeing my crystal as frequently as Cortex eyed back to his airship which could no longer been seen as of 3 hours ago.
"So, what's your estimate on how much further we have to go?" Tobias innocently asked.
"Well, the crystal is pretty damn close to making me wanna don sunglasses, so I'd say we're not that far." I answered calmly and in a sort of joking manner to lighten the mood.
"Oh, yea, the suspense is killing me." Tawna sarcastically replied, smiling with her eyes half closed, "Seriously, my feet are starting to freeze and I don't see anything for miles, can't we take a break?"
"Where on Earth are we suppose to take a break?" Coco came in, "The whole place is miles of snows, and you expect us to sit on it? It's up to our knees, we'll sink!"
"Maybe if we wait, Santa and his reindeers will come and save us." Nina joked. Some of us chuckled. The little jokes only got us so far through the hours and lighten our spirits.
"Look, okay." I came in, "We'll walk around a bit more. If we don't reach the portal by the time its dark, we'll rest."
"Darkness might not come for a while, Crash." Coco immediately took out her laptop, "Seeing as sunlight might not even go away for months up here."
"Just be glad we didn't come here during when the night." Cortex muttered. "Kids". He's never called anyone "kids" before, not even me. Maybe he felt like a father. He is surrounded by a bunch of teenagers. We traveled further some more. We manage to walk two hours and my crystal remain the same glow. Our watch said 6 PM and our feet must've all turned black and blue. We barely sat down to eat either and half of our body were covered in frozen snow, it was of luck that Tropy came…or maybe he planned to come at this point.
Tropy was the only one dressed the same as he always was: donning usually in tan metallic armor with bits of silver and white, indigo leather covering the parts where his armor wasn't on, a small rounded Chinese hat, also tan and white with a tassel sticking out in the end, and most notably, a talisman paper sticking on the middle of the hat, nearly covering his face (he usually pushes it away). He's had a couple of those talismans on him before, but none of us could make it our, perhaps sans Cortex (I remember him studying on those texts). It was written in the ancient form of Chinese. Coco and I could only read the recent, modern form (both of us from separate, but Asian heritage). In Nina's case, she was only a child when she spent time in Japan before her mother shipped her off to America (for educational purpose and hoping she could help her daughter) and let her to live there for a few years before she returned, so while her hiragana was perfect, she had trouble with her kanji. Not so sure about her katakana.
"Tropy, about time you came!" Cortex breathlessly snapped, "Unless you plan on disappearing again, it had better be something good." Tropy was silent, arms crossed, eyes half closed, mouth shut, staring at Cortex like he was his inferior slave. He was even floating a bit in mid air so that he was taller then usual.
"Don't sound like you own me." Tropy calmly spoke. Cortex made a face as though wanting to smack him for even daring to speak to him in that manner. Before we could have seen something like that, Tropy pointed with his staff, "Come on, I found a cave." Tropy calmly and quietly spoke, as if Cortex's rudeness didn't even phase him.
He started to float towards the way. Cortex, shrugging, followed, we followed after.
Year 18, Day 160
The cave was large enough to hold us all in and deep enough for us to avoid the cold air as night started to come. Although you couldn't tell as the sun was still out, it was 9 PM when we manage to get settled in and have dinner.
Coco volunteered to do the cooking.
"My cooking as improved." Coco grinned as she rolled her sleeves as though she was getting ready for a fistfight, "So I'm gonna make vegetable soup. I'm very good at that."
"I'll help her, too." Tobias eagerly went over to him before I pulled him away.
"Not so fast, Romeo." I grabbed him by his collar. Of course Tawna let out a deep sigh and dragged me away,
"Tell ya what, mate, I'll watch her, ya…umm…talk with people." Then she pushed me away to the nearest person; Nina. Nina must've not heard Tawna because she was too busy writing. I didn't bother taking Tawna's advice and instead sat on my sleeping bag, taking out the latest video game magazine and reading, CD player banging in my ears (which miraculously did not froze). I slowly lowered the magazine at times to see the others. As I smelled vegetable soup from my nose, my stomach grumbled. I was anticipating food greatly. I wasn't anticipating Nina coming over to talk with me.
"Yes?" I asked when she sat next to me, "Can I do anything or did you come just to stare at me?"
"I want to know more about Cortex." Nina hopefully asked me, staring at me like I was a bank full of money, all of them for herself.
"Then go ask Cortex." I eyed him who was busy trying to contact the others in some way. Electrical devices didn't work well (which frustrated Coco when her laptop refuse to go online), so he instead wrote to them and had made Tropy deliver it (although he complained unemotionally about how he isn't a delivery boy) who came back as quickly as he left, then proceeded to standing near the entrance to the cave.
"I'll keep an eye out, I don't need to eat." He gave his excuse.
"I also want to talk to you, get to know you." Nina muttered, "After all…we are cousins." I quickly put down my magazine and cupped her mouth. I then looked around and saw the others still doing their daily things. I sighed and whispered, "Be careful what you say of you being related to me. Most of these guys aren't aware I am the son of Cortex."
"Well, why don't you tell them? Save a whole hell of a lot of trouble." Nina, too, whispered.
"It's…It's not that simple." I gestured, "I especially don't want Coco to know. She's my little sister, a happy, optimistic, bubbly sister who would be absolutely distressed when she find's out her older brother is the son of our greatest enemy."
"Alright, fine." Nina rolled her eyes, "But I still think it's a bit stupid to keep it, really."
"Whatever." I grabbed the magazine again and proceeded to read again if not for Nina pulling the magazine out of my face.
"Why don't you tell me a bit of yourself, hmm?" Nina gave a smirk look at me like she was cleverer then me. I sighed, smiled a bit, sat up more, and spoke.
"I'm 18, my hobbies include napping, dancing, surfing, and playing ungodly amounts of video games, my favorite books are the Harry Potter series (although I'm not as insanely obsessed with them as my little sis), Lord of the Rings, anything from Ronald Dahl (the man is a genius), lots and lots of Batman comic, and…don't laugh, The Joy Luck Club." Nina didn't laugh, she giggled.
"Hey, boys can like that, too." I playfully shoved her, "Any who, I have had various part time jobs, the longest I stayed was in a pizza parlor, when I went to school, I exceeded in English a lot. Hmm, my favorite color is blue, I also like to build model airplanes (my fave one is the blue bi-plane I made), I'm experienced in driving cars, motorcycles, planes, and so forth. Ummm…" I was already running out of things to say.
"What was it like, living with Cortex?" Nina softly asked, "I mean, you've lived with him so much longer then me." It only felt so long since I actually spoke to someone about my living conditions with Cortex. I never even mentioned it again to Tawna after we escaped and made that promise never to tell Coco. It was uncomfortable, speaking about it, but it had that great sense of nostalgia.
"It was like any other father/son." I barely spoke, "…Everything, every little world we had together…it was perfect. We shared, we laughed, we played…nothing could penetrate it; at least…that's what I thought. Then…something happened. I'm still not completely sure, but it happened and our little world broke in two and we were left apart." My voice softly broke down as I finished. Silence between us.
"He's very…different." Nina spoke, staring at Cortex who started to serve the bowls with soup, "Yet there's a sense of something inside him."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Whatever Cortex has had when you two were together, he passed onto me." Nina sincerely spoke, "He makes me feel like I do have a father again, only he understands me and tries so hard to be a part of my life, unlike my real father." I nodded automatically, not sure if I was suppose to agree or not.
"Everybody has something decent inside." Nina softly spoke, "You DO think he passed it on to me…do you? Ya know, fatherly bond, from you to me?"
"Maybe." I softly spoke, my eyes now fixed on Cortex.
"You're not…jealous, are you?" Nina asked me, but at that point, I was too fixated on Cortex to answer.
………………
"Why can't you just die?"
My eyes shot open when I heard that whispering voice again. As I immediately stood up from my sleeping bag, I saw the pale white kid and felt my throat clog up.
"I hate you." Then the kid started to run away. With a horror struck face, I ran after the mysterious pale faced kid, not caring at all that he was a potential ghost who could have killed me. I was near the end of the cave with my furry feet near the snow. The pale child stopped and stared at me again.
"Doesn't matter…if I don't kill you…you'll die on your own account. I just want to do it sooner.s"
"What! What do you mean?"
"Why don't you ask him?"
"Him? Who's him? There's a lot of 'hims" I know!" I shouted as the wind started to blow. I hugged myself, trying to keep warm. Furs weren't helping enough.
The child, silent as always, left.
"WAIT! WAIT! I SAID WAIT!" I cried, trying to run after him no matter how much the snow was stinging up feet. The snow immediately came to my knees and the awkward walking comes again.
"Wait…" I muttered slowly, then I felt so hot again and once again, I fainted.
Year X, Day X
"Crash…why were you out in the snow?"
"He must've fainted again." Coco sighed, "This happens. We're not so sure why. We just think it's a habit he might have developed when he was younger."
"He faints…" I gasped. Coco nodded.
"He's gonna be fine, won't he?" Tobias lowered himself down to Crash who was lying on his sleeping bag again, "Ain't gonna be much challenging when I'm with Coco and he isn't here to drag me away."
I let out a saddening face with the biggest frown I had ever made. No one else noticed but Nina. When I told everyone to get back in bed, Nina opt to talk to me instead.
"What is wrong with him?"
"Fainting problems…he's had these for a while." I muttered, "Ever since he was young. His blood pressure rises, causing him to faint."
"Why?" Nina asked, "Is his blood unstable or something?"
"I…I'm not so sure." I slowly spoke, "I have a theory, but I'm afraid to say it out loud…"
Year 18, Day 164
After another 3 hours of traveling the next day after our night in the cave, my crystal massively glowed to the point where I was glad I brought sunglasses with me. Small, round black sunglasses. It was when the crystal stopped glowing and went back to a whimper when we stopped.
"Huh? The crystal!" Coco gasped. Everyone murmured.
"It stopped glowing!"
"Did we pass it?"
"Impossible! There's nothing but snow!"
"I definitely do not see any portal."
While everyone was busy talking, I backtracked a little, then stopped. I heard whispers again
"I want to kill you…took everything from me…shameful…Come closer."
I freaked out inside my mind, what did he want? The whispers died down when we all heard and felt a rumble. Panicking, I noticed a small hole near my feet. I bent down to look closer and saw light peeking out from it. Before I could react, the hole got larger and larger and larger until we all had to run for our lives before it could engulf us. Everyone was a pretty good distance, but due to me being near the damn hole and not moving fast enough, I was slowly feeling the earth fall as I ran. The snow being knee deep wasn't helping my cause either. In a matter of minutes, I started to fall.
"CRASH!" came the shrill cries of both Tawna and Coco. Everyone else screamed after in fear. My falling off felt more slow-mo then anything else, like a scene in a movie. I was falling down the bright lights of the giant hole, almost certain I would face doom.
Then I felt someone lift me up and pull me up on something. I had my eyes closed, so when I opened them, I was on the deck of the Nicodemus which was floating high in the air. I gasped and saw Cortex's cronies surrounding me.
"Ya okay there, mate?" Dingodile's gruff voice rang.
"Ya almost fell to your possible and certain doom." Pinstripe spoke, "Luckily, ol' time boy saved ya." I spun around to see Tropy before me, giving off that same emotionless look. Although it must've been me, but in some way, he seemed worried.
"Are you okay?" Tropy asking that only furthered my theory. He never asked if anyone was "okay", he would usually know. I quickly nodded.
"Good." He went back to his usual self, and then ordered the ship to be lowered. The earth had stopped moving and the hole was complete. I looked down from the deck and was amazed at the size of it. It's as if a meteor decided to crash land to the other side of the world. Once the ship had lowered and everyone was picked up, all of us took a much closer look at the giant crater-sized portal from high up.
"Holy Crap." Crunch gasped, "That's bigger then Tiny's ass!" Tiny let out a mumbled growl.
"Is that…the portal?" Pinstripe breathlessly gasped.
"Yes." Tropy calmly spoke. We all stared down. The portal not only was huge, but unusually bright. While the top surface walls were glowing a beautiful blue, pink, and violet (as if the Northern Lights were in there), we couldn't see what was below or how long the portal was as the further it went down, the more brighter it got.
"It's eerily beautiful." Coco smiled, "But we found it! Now Uka Uka and Aku Aku can go in!" And right on cue, our respective mask Gods appeared out of nowhere. Aku gave our team a warm smile, Uka gave a confident face to his, and the two dived in, none of them speaking a word.
"Now what?" Tawna asked.
"We wait." Tropy answered, "Wait and see who emerges victorious. Make yourself comfortable, this could take a while."
To Be Continued…
