Chpater 3 - Thought's Become Reality

The door of crashes hut is slammed shut, as Crash and Coco return from their peaceful walk on the beach.

"That was a great walk Crash, I really enjoyed it," Coco said, smiling up at her brother.

Crash, however, wasn't smiling, he was staring at Aku Aku, who in turn was staring back at him.

"Crash, Coco, we need to talk," Aku's words filled with tension.

"Look, if it's about the exploding wumpa fruit, I can explain...."

"No, it is something far, far more serious than that, I suggest you both take a seat."

Crash and Coco did as they were told, when Aku Aku mentioned the word serious, they knew something major had happened. Crunch appeared from the kitchen area, his face also serious.

"I have been keeping something inside me for some time now, as I feared I may cause distress for you."

Every word that Aku Aku said seemed to be painful for him.

"I hope that the feeling I have inside of me is wrong, but......"

"What is it?" Coco questioned.

".....I fear that doctor Cortex is still alive!"

A silence fell over the hut. The atmosphere was so tense you could cut it with a knife. Crash stared at Aku Aku, then stared at Coco, before staring back at Aku again. After several minutes of constant staring, the silence was broken.

"That can't be true Aku, it just can't be," Crash retorted.

"I hope I am wrong too, but something just doesn't seem right, I still sense great evil."

"Well hey, I'm sure if Cortex was gonna do something, he would have done something by now," Crunch spoke up, "so, for the time being, I guess there's nothing to worry about, if we beat him once we can beat him again right?"

Another silence fell on the hut. This time, Aku Aku broke the silence.

"I suggest we all get some sleep now, and not to fill our minds with worry."

"It's ok Aku Aku," Coco replied, "we won't worry, we know things will pull through in the end, they always do."

With no more words spoken, everyone went to rest for the night.

It was the middle of the night, and the moon was bathing everything in a hauntingly beautiful white glow. Everyone was alseep, all that is, apart from Crash, his eyes wide open, his mind was racing with the conversation he had thatevening with Aku Aku.

"Aku Aku has to be wrong," Crash thought, "I saw Cortex die with my own eyes and his castle crumble on top of him, no normal human being could survive such a thing."

Crash knew that he would not be able to sleep that night, so he carefully made his way out of bed and trough the front door, to walk on the beach.Crash looked around him, at the tranquility of the place, everything seemed too peaceful for Cortex to be alive. As much as Crash trusted Aku Aku, he doubted the wise masks judgements this time. No sooner had Crash thought these words that he heard something moving in the undergrowth to the right of where he was situated. He quickly looked round, but saw nothing there.

"That's funny, I could have sworn something was there. Must have been the wind."

As the moon was hidden by a thick cloud, Crash turned to head back to the hut, as it was almost morning. However, something was blocking his way, something big. The cloud cover dispersed, to reveal a huge tiger standing in the marsupial's way, but this was no ordinary tiger. Crash saw that it had metal plating all over it's body, one of it's eyes was glowing a menacing red, it's teeth glistening in the moonlight, and it's claws were sharpened to lethal spikes. The creature gave a low growl.

"What the hell.........!?"

Crash had no more time to think as the tiger leapt at Crash, who barely moved out of the way in time to avoid those lethal claws. The tiger quickly turned round and lashed it's tail, which connected with Crash's jaw with some force, Crash was sent flying, and landed in a flurry of sand and blood. Crash groaned as the tiger slammed a massive paw onto his face.

"This is it, I'm going to die," Crash thought, his hopes of escaping now dwindling.

The mighty creature raised a metallic paw to deliver the finishing blow, when.......

"STOP!"

The tiger looked over it's shoulders and walked away from Crash slowly. He couldn't believe his luck, someone had saved him from death. But his hopes were soon shattered as he glanced over to where the tiger was walking to. The face was all too familiar.

"Cortex!"

"Well well well, if it isn't Crash Bandicoot," Cortex's robotic voice rang out, "how do you like my new pet?"

Crash tried to stand up, but the tiger snarled, baring it's teeth, Crash decided it was better to stay on the ground.

"It's impossible, you died!" Crash shouted.

Cortex sniggered, "yes, that's what you thought, but you didn't think you could get rid of me that easily did you?"

"Damn you Cortex, what do you want?"

"I WANT TO GET RID OF YOU AND THE REST OF YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS ONCE AND FOR ALL!" The very ground shook as Cortex's voice bellowed.

"You'll never win, not while there's a last breath in my body! Whatever you have planned, I will stop you!"

Cortex laughed, "not this time Crash, not this time. Most of your animal friends are now under my command, willing to do my every bidding!"

Cortex held up a cage that he had been carrying. To his dismay, Crash saw that it was filled with all kinds of animals, all had been transformed into robots. They were all staring blindly ahead, not moving, not even breathing. Crash gasped and stared in disbelief.

"you bastard! Have you no heart left in you at all?!"

"No, I don't!" Cortex dropped the cage and picked up Crash with one giant steel hand, "I think you have heard enough, now I will dispose of you, so you cannot ruin my plans."

Crash was struggling to breath, Cortex's grip was too tight to escape, "what are you.......going to do.......to me?"

"Oh, you'll find out, if you're not dead beforehand!"

Cortex raised his other clenched fist, Crash braced for the impact, then there was nothing.